Taskforce Alpha
by Graceful Petals
Summary: Some people were born heroes. Others were made.
1. Chapter One

**CHARACTER LIST:**

 **IF YOU DO NOT SEE YOUR CHARACTER ON THIS LIST YOU MAY STILL HAVE YOUR OC ACCEPTED. SEE AUTHOR'S NOTE FOR MORE DETAILS.**

 **Bold indicates Metahuman**

 _Italics indicates Human_

 _ **Bold and Italics indicate Alien**_

Ground Combat Element:

 **Lydia Anderson, 17**

 **Wolfgang Lee, 20**

 _Jacob Lyland, 24_

 _ **Shaun Jameson, 19**_

 _ **Lyrick Saunders, 19**_

 _ **Murugon 'Muru' Gontalahad, 20**_

Logistics Combat Element:

 _Dr. Akihiko Minoto, 20_

 _Regina 'Ginny' Pasternak, 18_

 **Craig Stevens, 19**

Command Element:

 _Colonel Donald White, 54_

 _Major Victoria Greenway, 31_

 **Captain Zephyr Yakota, 24**

* * *

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **January 13, 2016 – 0900 hours**_

The click of black stiletto heels echoed off of the white brick wall as well as in Jacob Lyland's mind. Jacob resisted the urge to yawn as he followed the dark haired and dark skinned woman down the long mundane hallway. Jacob's green eyes scanned up and down the white bricks searching for something that made this government building interesting. So far he hadn't found anything that stood out. The building was dull and over all ordinary. It reminded him of his old high school or maybe a hospital.

"This is the Ground Combat's squad bay. Your barrack is down this hall." Major Victoria Greenway informed him as they took a sharp left turn and began to walk down a hallway that matched the last one almost perfectly except for the increased number of doors that were scattered across both sides of the hall. "You'll be rooming with Murugon Gontalahad." She continued on, spurting information that meant absolutely nothing to Jacob as he did not recognize the name Murugon Gontalahad at all. "Your photo ID that was issued to you when you first entered the building will work as a key to this entire place. Don't go anywhere without and always wear it in a place that can be easily seen."

Jacob's eyes narrowed so slightly that there was no way Victoria could have noticed it. "Of course." He nodded charmingly as he cocked his head slightly to the side.

If Victoria suspected anything about his attitude being false, then she didn't say so and simply stopped moving in front of the furthest most orange colored door. "Welcome to the Alpha Taskforce." Victoria smiled slightly at the twenty-four year old before swiping her own photo ID card and waiting for the green light to appear before pushing the heavy metal door open.

Jacob listened to the click of Victoria's heels as they became fainter the further down the hall she went as he surveyed the room in front of him. It wasn't large and if Jacob had gone to college he wagered that it was probably the size of an average college dorm room. There were two twin sized beds on both sides of the white walled room along with two oak nightstands. The floor was the same white tile floor that Jacob had seen throughout the entire government facility. Each nightstand had a lamp and Jacob also noted the two giant oak wardrobes that were pushed against the far wall of the room. Everything was uniformed, much like Jacob expected. Anything else from the military would be weird. Finally sitting on the bed the was pressed against the left wall was tall red haired boy. The boy looked up at the sound of Jacob's entry, his gold eyes striking straight into Jacob's mind and he found it hard to focus on anything else.

Jacob quickly regained his composure as he shook the image of his roommate's gold eyes from his mind and stuck out his hand quickly throwing on a causal smile. "Jacob Lyland, you must be Murugon."

Murugon rose from his bed slowly and regarded Jacob's hand with weariness. "Call me Muru." He grunted out, his eyes still narrow as he stared at Jacob's outstretched hand.

Jacob got the idea fairly easily and quickly retracted his hand yet his smile remained firmly in place. He turned from the younger man and swung his small black duffle bag onto the other unclaimed bed. He began to pull out the assortment of clothes that they had issued to him at the same time they had issued his ID. He noticed with slight annoyance that everything was green and matching and couldn't help but roll his eyes at how cliché it was. It reminded him of the military academy moves he use to watch when he was younger.

"What are you?" Muru grunted from behind Jacob and Jacob couldn't help but be slightly caught off guard with the question. He spun to see Muru staring at him with his arms crossed firmly against his chest as if Jacob was a puzzle that needed to be solved.

"I'm sorry?" Jacob asked, struggling to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "I'm afraid I don't understand the question."

"Are you an alien? Meta-human?" Muru clarified, shifting his weight slightly but otherwise showing no signs of being uncomfortable with asking such an odd question.

"I'm a human." Jacob told Muru, and again he had to work to keep any hint of sarcasm out of his tone.

"Just a human?" Muru asked, honest confusion coloring his face this time as his arms dropped from their defensive position.

"Yes. You?" Jacob asked and although it was more to get back at Muru he was honestly curious as to what Muru was exactly.

"I'm from the planet Tenburr." Muru answered and Jacob nodded politely.

"Never heard of it." Jacob commented casually as he stuck his hands in his gray slacks and he didn't miss the way Muru's hands tightened into fist by his sides. Jacob watched as Muru seemed to struggle with his anger for a second before regaining his composure.

Muru's fist untightened as he let out the air he didn't know he had been holding in his lungs. "If you're just a human, what are you doing here?" Muru asked as he raised a single eyebrow at Jacob. His comment aiming to offend the older man.

"Not everyone needs powers to be a hero." Jacob answered simply and Muru could tell that his comment hadn't bothered Jacob. "So you're twenty, huh?" Jacob commented pointing at Muru's ID badge which was pinned to his shirt that not only identified him by his name and as a part of taskforce alpha but also by his birthday. Muru's eyes narrowed for what felt like the fiftieth time as he nodded. "Only a year time you can drink then. Trust me things get a lot better once you're allowed to drink alcohol. Although I guess no one's going to be doing much drinking around here. They confiscated all my stuff when I got here."

Muru felt his defenses sliding around Jacob as he actually felt the corners of his mouth begin to twitch into what might have been a smile. "Guy who walked me around told me they didn't want us to have any outside contact during our training here."

"Eh, doesn't surprise me." Jacob answered honestly. "Government likes to be in control. They think letting us have things like the internet will make us suddenly change our minds about being here."

Muru nodded in agreement before the two adults fell into silence.

"Well this room is depressing. What do you say we go and see if we can find some more of our future teammates?" Jacob suggested when the silence was becoming too awkward to let continue on.

"Sure." Muru agreed and Jacob gestured for the taller red head to lead the way as he attempted to pin his name badge onto his jacket.

The two young adults exited the small barrack and allowed the metal door to slam shut behind them, the sound once again echoing off the halls almost as if mocking the silence. Muru adventured down the stark hallway farther away from their room and for a brief second he worried that he wouldn't be able to find his way back to the small space. He let the thought exit his mind as quickly as it entered and instead focused on navigating the white halls in front of him.

It didn't take long for the two newly introduced roommates to find themselves in front of a new darker color door with a sign on the left side of it that read 'Common Area'. "Let's see what's behind door number one shall we?" Jacob joked as he pulled off his ID card and swiped it causing the light to flash green. Muru's eyebrows drew together in confusion to the reference but chose not to comment. Muru pulled the heavy door open with ease and took a step inside looking around at the spacious yet still bare room with the same white walls and white tile floors.

The room had two blue couches and two matching armchairs with a couple of oak side tables littered around the room. On the wall furthest from the door was one large flat-screen television and all the furniture seemed to be centered around the television. Jacob did note with a hint of satisfaction that there was a large window on the left side of the room allowing for natural light to flood into the room and give a much more appealing look then the rest of the building that he had seen so far had.

Muru watched as a small figure jumped up at the sound of their arrival and spun to face them. Lydia Anderson, as her ID badge identified her, made her way over the couch and to the two taller recruits. "Uh, hi. I'm Lydia." She introduced herself and gave a small wave.

"Muru." Muru responded, and attempted not to sound as stand-offish as he felt.

"Jacob." Jacob smiled with his teeth politely at the petite girl, which encouraged the girl to smile back at him.

Lydia's blue eyes swept up the brunette and red-haired men in front of her and she suddenly felt a lot shorter then she had in a while. "I was just watching the news." Lydia explained, pointing to the TV behind her without really looking at it. "That seems to be the only thing that plays on this TV."

Lydia turned, her long brown hair swishing behind her, and began to head back towards the couch she was occupying before.

"Mind if we join you?" Jacob asked as he also headed towards the blue couch and took a seat next to Lydia.

"Um sure. I moved in like a week ago and you guys are the first people from the taskforce I've seen." Lydia informed the Muru and Jacob as she sat down on the couch and Jacob took a seat next to her. Muru opted for a more far away option by sitting in the armchair next to the couch. "I think everyone's supposed to be moving in today though. Colonel White said something about an orientation sort of thing this morning. In fact, they should be calling us down any minute." Lydia rambled as she glanced downwards at her government issued black bulky watch and Jacob sensed the young girl was nervous.

"Why'd you move in a week ago?" Muru asked tactlessly although the question didn't seem to bother Lydia.

"I'm seventeen and since I'm working for the government, they're legally required to give me some sort of education with like at least three hours of school a day." Lydia explained, looking a little annoyed at the idea. "I started classes like a week ago cause they're trying to get a head start on everything."

Jacob resisted the urge to laugh and managed to choke out the words, "That unfortunate," before clamping his mouth down tightly.

"It's not that bad," Lydia insisted and Jacob wondered if she was trying to convince them or herself. "I'm in my second semester of my senior year."

"What's been on the news?" Jacob asked as he nodded towards the muted TV which prompt Lydia to grabbed the remote from the side table on and unmute the TV allowing the room to fill with background noise.

"Just the Justice League. Apparently there was some huge alien attack in Star City." Lydia answered, her attention turning back to the television.

"Aliens, always attacking our planet. Right Muru?" Jacob asked, a slight twinkle in his eye as he teased the taller yet younger man.

Muru answered Jacob with a simple glare that pretty much said everything Muru was thinking. Jacob decided not to push his lucky with the twenty year old alien powerhouse and turned to also watch the TV.

"Are you sure the news is really the only thing that plays on this TV?" Muru asked bored with the same coverage of the Justice League as always seemed to be playing on the TV and doubt of Lydia's previous statement filling his voice.

Lydia tossed him the small black remote with the older recruit caught with ease. "Be my guess," the short brunette girl sarcastically remarked.

Muru hit the channel button and the screen flickered for a second before changing to a different news channel covering the same Justice League story as the last channel. He hit the button once more only for the same thing to occur. He tried two more times before growing frustrated and throwing the remote back at Lydia using much more force then she had used when she threw it to him.

Muru felt a flicker of guilt as the remote flew straight for Lydia's head and the girl put her hands up and turned her head away. However, inches before the remote went flying into Lydia's head it bounced off of an invisible force and landed softly back onto the couch next to Lydia.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to throw it that hard." Muru apologized, a remorseful frown placed firmly on his face and despite the apologetic tone of his voice his face still conveyed a state of frustration.

"It's fine. No harm, no foul." Lydia waved him off and she put her hands down and reached for the remote to turn off the TV.

"How'd you do that?" Jacob asked as Lydia pointed the remote towards the cable box and the TV screen faded to black.

"Meta-human. I can create force-fields." Lydia answered and Jacob couldn't tell if it was pride coloring her voice or something darker.

The click of the door opening behind them caused all Lydia, Jacob, and Muru to turn around as Victoria walked into the common room.

"Good you're all together." Victoria nodded as she noticed Lydia, Jacob, and Muru. "Colonel White and Captain Yakota are ready for you down at the Quarter Deck."

"Quarter Deck?" Muru parroted, confusion coloring his voice as his eyebrows raised.

Victoria rolled her eyes before turning sharply on her heel. "Just follow me." She commanded in a tired tone as if she had been dealing with people who didn't know anything all day. Which, to be fair, Lydia was sure she had been seeing as all the new recruits were moving in that day. Still it was only half past nine and the older woman seemed to be at her wits end.

Jacob was the first to follow Victoria and Muru and Lydia quickly fell in line behind them.

"Who's Colonel White?" Muru asked Lydia quietly, as if he didn't want to upset Victoria who was just out of earshot.

"He's the guy in charge of this entire thing. He handpicked all of us for this so he knows literally everything about us." Lydia began only to be interrupted by Jacob.

"Everything?" He asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Everything." Lydia confirmed while nodding her head. "I heard that this isn't the first taskforce he put together. The last one didn't work out or something. First mission was a complete fail and no one really knows what happened but the entire team just vanished. Which is apparently why he's so intense about this taskforce. He did all the background checks himself. Picked us based on specific skills that we had. Those aptitude test that we had to take when we applied were like psychological test to see if we could handle this kind of life." Lydia continued in a hushed tone. "I mean I guess that could all be speculation. I haven't seen Colonel White that much this week and the only time I did see him he just corrected something I was doing, like my posture or something, and then moved on. I never even got the chance to say a word to him."

"What about Captain Yakota?" Jacob asked as his mind raced with all the newly acquired information Lydia had just provided.

"I haven't met him yet. Heard from some of the Marines around base that he's from Japan." Lydia shrugged and Jacob nodded.

The three new Marine recruits followed Victoria into the small metal elevator that traveled down to the first floor before the silver doors sliding open.

Victoria led them to down a familiar white hallway until stopping in front of two double doors that were painted an army green. Jacob found that fact slightly ironic seeing as how they were technically working for the Marine Corps. Victoria slide her card and the doors beeped as Jacob heard the lock click. So far from what he'd seen, nothing in the entire building would open with an ID card. It made sense, but at the same time seemed a little bit like overkill. They were already on a secure base, which someone would have to have a military ID to get on, behind a large electric fence, which someone needed to code to get past, in a government run building that required photo ID badges to get into. Besides all that, the only people that were in the building were Marine Officers who ran it, or people with more than enough skill to take care of themselves.

Victoria pushed open one of the doors and Jacob, the gentleman he pretended to be, pushed open the other one and allowed Lydia and Muru to enter the room a head of them before releasing their hold on the door and allowing them to slam shut.

Inside the double doors was a room that was much different from anything Muru had seen in his short stay at Camp Pendleton. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all a dark grey color that created a sort of soothing environment. There wasn't any furniture but in the middle of the room was a large circular arena type area that was a step higher than the rest of the floor.

"Welcome to the Quarter Deck Cadets." A tall man, who Lydia recognized as Colonel White, barked out. "Today, Captain Yakota will be your commanding officer as we get a feel of what you can do. I'll be back at the end of the day to see how miserably you all failed my expectations." Colonel White sneered before turning to march out of the room allowing Lydia to see another man, also in uniform, standing on the grey circular platform.

Captain Zephyr Yakota, as Lydia assumed he was, was a tall man with buzzed cut red hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore regular cammies instead of the Charlies that General White and Major Greenway wore.

"Hello Cadets." Zephyr formally greeted the six young adults in front of him. "This," he said as he held up a dark green sweatshirt that had the Marine Corps emblem printed on the top left as well as a pair of matching green sweatpants, "is your PT uniform. When I call your name please come to retrieve your uniform and use the facilities to the left and right of you to change into it. Please remember to switch your ID badge from the clothes you wear now to the clothes you change into." He commanded and then looked down at the roster he had placed on top of the cardboard box of uniforms.

"Anderson, Lydia." Lydia stepped forward and walked towards Zephyr and Victoria and took the shrink wrapped green uniform from the hands of Victoria before walking quickly to the locker room on the left of the room that read 'Women's'.

"Gontalahad, Murugon." Jacob watched as Muru walked towards Victoria and Zephyr and noticed for the first time the bronze-colored horns that shot out of the back of his head. Muru took the uniform before retreating to the right side of the room where the men's locker room was located.

"Jameson, Shaun." A tall red haired boy, who Jacob assumed was Shaun, stepped forward to receive his uniform. Jacob struggled to read his photo ID although he did manage to see the age nineteen flash at him as the blue eyed boy walked rather cheerfully to the locker room. The kid was obviously an alien if his oddly orange skin and green sclera of his eyes were anything to go by.

"Lee, Wolfgang." Jacob watch as possible the only person here who was shorter than him, besides Lydia who was incredibly shorter than everyone, stepped forward. Granted the black haired boy was only about an inch short than him, he was still shorter and that made Jacob feel somewhat happy.

"Lyland, Jacob." Zephyr called and Jacob received his uniform from Victoria in the same fashion as the rest of the Cadets did leaving only one boy in the large grey room.

Lyrik Saunders watched as the only other Cadet besides himself went to the locker room before hearing, "Saunders, Lyrik." Called from Zephyr. The blonde nineteen year old took his sweatpants and sweatshirt from Victoria, thanking her with a quick smile before heading towards the locker room with the rest of the boys.

"They're young." Victoria remarked as she watched the lanky boy retreat into the locker room.

"Lyland is the identical age that I am." Zephyr responded, not paying much attention to Victoria. "The only Cadet that is under the legal age of adulthood is Anderson. From the information that Colonel White has conveyed to me, they are all more than capable."

"I know Zephyr." Victoria said as she rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying that when I was that age I couldn't even think about doing something like this. Something so intense. I mean this is it for them. Their entire lives were mapped out the moment that they signed up for this."

Zephyr remained silent for a moment. "When you were their age I do not believe that you had the power they each possess."

Victoria sighed as she stared at the door the Cadets had disappeared into. "You're right about that Captain. Anyway," She turned to look at Zephyr, "If you need me just radio. I'm going to be dealing with the Logistics Combat Element."

Zephyr nodded and Victoria turned on her heel and left out the door she had enter in.

Lydia exited the women's locker room now cladded in the dark green sweatshirt and sweatpants as she carried the clothes she had been wearing in her hands. "Um, sir?" She asked causing Zephyr to spin to face her. "What should I do with my other clothes?"

"You may place them into this cardboard box and take them with you when you retire tonight." Zephyr answered as he pushed the box towards Lydia, who nodded and placed her clothes into the large box.

The two metahumans waited in silence as slowly but surely the five boy recruits filed out of the locker room each one placing his clothes into the box.

"I am going to put you into your squad formation." Zephyr informed the group once everyone had exited the locker room and lined up in front of the tall darker skinned man. "Anytime that we meet here and I have not yet instructed you as to what you are doing, you will stand in this squad formation. On training missions and during drills you will use this formation." Zephyr continued on, his voice calm despite the demanding words. "Jameson, Lyland, Murugon" Zephyr called out and Shaun, Jacob, and Muru walked to the positions Zephyr pointed to. The three of them made a sort of spread out triangle shape with Shaun on the left back corner, Muru on the right back corner and Jacob ahead of them slightly in the middle. "Lee, Anderson, Saunders." Sephyr said and then repeated the shape only this time with Wolfgang in the back left corner, Lyrik in the back right corner and Lydia as the middle point. Zephyr line up the second triangle shape behind the first and then stepped back as if to observe his work. "This is your squad position." He announced.

"In order to test your ability in combat, we will be having one on one close combat matches. Anderson and Jameson, you are the first to try." Zephyr said, pushing on from one topic to another so quickly that Lydia had trouble keeping up.

Zephyr gestured for the two to come up onto the grey platform with him and Shaun did so hesitantly. They walked up the step it took to join Zephyr as Shaun glanced nervously at Lydia. The small scrawny girl looked like a strong blow of wind would knock her over and Shaun worried that he might seriously injure the younger girl on the first day of training. Zephyr stepped down off the platform and to a grey podium that stood right next to it. He pressed a couple of buttons before a blue tinted energy field began to lower around the platform separating Shaun and Lydia from the other four recruits.

"I am lowering an energy field to ensure you both stay in the boundaries of the platform as well as to ease the effect of any potential harm that could be done to you by the fight. The energy field is designed to soften blows." Zephyr explained and oddly enough it didn't make Lydia feel any better about being trapped in what felt like a cage match of death.

"I do not think we have been introduced before, I am Shaun Jameson." Shaun said as he stuck his hand out to Lydia which he had seen many humans do when meeting one another.

"Lydia." Lydia said with a shake of Shaun's hand.

"Remember that the objective is to disable your opponent, not cause harm." Zephyr reminded and Shaun once again felt pre-mature guilt at the idea of slamming Lydia to the floor. "You may commence."

"I am sorry." Shaun muttered out before charging at Lydia, who's eyes widened slightly at Shaun attack before coming to her senses just in time to throw up a force field that intercepted Shaun's charge.

The force of Shaun's body hitting Lydia's force field was still enough to send Lydia backwards a couple of inches and make her drop her force field. Shaun regained his composer quicker than Lydia did and began to charge once more at her. Lydia made a high pitched squeaking noise before barely dodging Shaun's attack, crawling out of the way just before he got to her. She once again threw up a force field around herself as her mind raced with what she could possible do to go on the offense instead of the defense.

Shaun threw a green energy blast at Lydia's force field only to discover that it held up pretty well against it. He tried again, this time sending multiple green energy blasts in a row at Lydia only to have each one deflected by her force field.

Shaun flew up into the air and Lydia couldn't help but groan in exasperation. "You can fly? Seriously?!" She asked rhetorically as Shaun flung his body down at Lydia's force field, this time successfully shatter it causing him to be thrown across the platform. Lydia took the moment it took Shaun to recover to camouflage her body, successfully becoming invisible and blending in with her environment.

"Where did you go?" Shaun asked, but unlike Lydia's question he expected an answer. He stood dumbfounded in the middle of the platform spinning around in circles waiting for Lydia to appear.

Suddenly a force field slammed into Shaun's body causing him to go flying into the energy field before falling to the ground. He moaned as he got to his feet only to have yet another force field sent flying his way. Shaun, now ready for the force field, punch out in front of him causing the force field to shatter and he did it again with the force field that followed the first one. Deciding he didn't like how the tables had turned he quickly shot a beam of green energy around the platform and succeeded in hitting his target as Lydia cried out in pain once again becoming visible.

Shaun took advantage of Lydia's distracted state and once again charged at Lydia, this time succeeding in ramming into her and sending her flying against the energy field and then she fell to the ground hard. Shaun charged once more ready to ram into her again only to notice that Lydia had stopped moving.

"Lydia?' He asked, slowing his charge.

She groaned and closed her eyes tightly rubbing the temples of her head as she curled tighter into the fetal position she was in.

"Did you have to hit me so hard?" She asked with her eyes still closed.

"I am sorry." Shaun apologized remorsefully. He really hadn't meant to harm her.

Shaun watched as the blue-tinted energy field fell down and Zephyr stepped up onto the Platform with them. Lydia slowly opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times and Shaun moved quickly to help her stand up.

"Are you in need of medical attention Anderson?" Zephyr asked formally yet Lydia could hear the undertone of worry that was laced into his voice.

"No I'm fine." She answered as she allowed Shaun to haul her up to her feet and wrap an arm around her waist to help her off the platform.

"I am truly sorry Lydia. Sometime I forget that I'm not fully human and that humans don't have as sturdy of bodies as Tamaraneons do." Shaun apologized once again as he helped Lydia step down and Lydia resisted the urge to laugh as she guessed he wouldn't understand what she found funny.

"It's fine Shaun. The point of the match was to disable me. You were just doing what you were supposed to do." Lydia assured Shaun as she shook his hand off her waist. Shaun hovered nearby still worried about the potential damage he had done despite Lydia's promises that she was fine. He settled for just remaining nearby in case Lydia needed any help.

"Anderson, your tendency to defend rather than attack leaves you at a constant state of vulnerability. You will never disable an appoint if you do not attack. Jameson, you need to strategize your attack. As of current you are charging into it and this can cause you to become predictable." Zephyr critiqued and Lydia and Shaun both silently nodded.

"Gontalahad, Saunders." Zephyr called out and the two hesitantly stepped up onto the platform.

Muru looked Lyrik up and down as he Zephyr stepped off in order to raise the energy field. Lyrik may have had the advantage in height standing what looked like half a foot taller than Muru, but Muru definitely had the advantage in body mass. Even though the twenty-year old was built leanly, he had a much more muscular build then the lengthy teen in front of him. Nineteen year old Lyrik didn't look like he was going to be a challenge for Muru. There was a moment of silence as Muru simply stared into the slit pupils of Lyriks green and blue eyes.

"You may commence." Zephyr said and Muru smirked as he cracked his head side to side as well as cracked him knuckles.

Lyrik raised an eyebrow at the display but otherwise didn't say anything as he spread his feet apart. As Lyrik blinked, Muru was suddenly in front of him and his left fist easily met the right side of Lyrik's face causing the younger alien to stumble backwards. Muru moved at an inhumane speed once again and Lyrik found himself going on the defensive. He ducked the blow aimed for his head this time and rolled out of the way as he contemplated what his next move should be. He watched as Muru continued with his same attack plan and Lyrik continued to dodge the punches that were aimed for his head with relative ease.

Muru began to grow frustrated as his attempted assault on Lyrik continued. His hands balled into fist and he felt his face become hot and his breathing uneven. "Stand still!" Muru commanded and Lyrik gave him a puzzled look before shrugging.

"Alright." Lyrik agreed and stopped moving, confusing Muru as well as the other recruits on the opposite side of the blue energy field.

Before Muru could get a sense of what was going on, Lyrik's body began to morph, his legs stretching long and his chest growing thicker. A steely cover seemed to suddenly cover Lyrik's changing form and the six-foot-six teen turned into a nine-foot monster in a matter of seconds.

"Oh that is so weird." Lydia muttered under her breathe and a look crossed between confusion and disarray come upon her face.

"Says the girl who can turn invisible." Jacob responded and Lydia casted her eyes down at the ground as he did have a point.

Muru stood dumb-struck for only a couple of seconds before shaking off the confusion in favor of once again using super speed to charge at Lyrik, who was now several feet taller than him.

Muru crashed into Lyrik's stomach, stumbling backwards and looking unharmed but annoyed none the less. Lyrik looked as impassive as he had been before and simply stared down at the red haired alien.

Blue energy suddenly shot out of Lyrik's eyes crashing into Muru's chest and sending him flying back into the blue tinted energy field.

Muru groaned as the blue energy field disappeared from top to bottom. Muru's face grew dark as he watched the field dissolve. "I wasn't done." He said sourly as he turned to Zephyr.

"I believe you were." Zephry replied without glancing at the younger man. Lyrik's body melted back into his original form and he bent down to offer his hand to Muru. Muru's face turned even more vengeful if possible as he ignored the outstretched hand of his comrade in favor of standing up on his own.

As Muru sulked off the platform and Lyrik followed him silently Zephyr called out, "Lee, Lyland."

Jacob sighed internally as he approached the grey platform. Jacob stared impassively at the twenty year old in front of him and couldn't help but think of what a waste of time it was to have these matches. He was unsure if Captain Yakota was trying to separate the weak from the strong or if he was trying to just pit the six of them against each other in hopes of aspiring rivalries. Either way, based on the looks Muru was sending at Lyrik Jacob assumed that the Captain had succeeded.

"You may commence." Zephyr nodded at them as the same blue tinted energy field was raised.

Immediately smoke filled the small arena like space and Jacob coughed, unable to see more than a couple of inches in front of him. Wolfgang pushed the smoke he had just created out of his way as he searched for Jacob and realized that maybe he should have figured out where the older man was standing before he released the smoke.

Deciding not the dwell on the past, Wolfgang waved his arms out and across his body causing all the smoke to go to the left and right side of him. He glanced side to side searching for Jacob before noticing he could not see the human anywhere. A pit of uncertainty began to grow in Walfgang's stomach as he slammed his hands back together in front of his face, deciding he didn't enjoy the feeling of vulnerability he was getting from not being able to see Jacob.

Jacob stood rather lazily behind Wolfgang surrounded by smoke as he quickly did the mental calculations as to what velocity Wolfgang would have to be going if he rammed into the energy field to knock himself down ensuring Jacob never really did anything. Double checking the number he had come up with before nodding to himself Jacob quietly stepped away from Wolfgang around the arena until he was the furthest he could get away from Wolfgang. Carefully he scuffed his shoe on the ground, making it loud enough for Wolfgang to hear but quiet enough to sound like he was being sneaky.

Wolfgang turned at the sound of the scuffing of a show and flew up into the air, speeding towards the noise source. As Wolfgang pushed away the last bit of smoke he realized, too late, that he wasn't heading towards Jacob, but instead he was speeding towards the blue energy field and at the rate he was going there was no way he could stop it.

Wolfgang braced himself for impact as he pushed his arms out in front of him and rammed into the energy field wall, bouncing off of it and to the ground.

The blue energy field lowered one last time and the rest of the recruits finally saw Wolfgang crumpled on the floor and Jacob standing still with a single scratch.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **January 13, 2016 – 1100 hours**_

Ginny Pasternak shifted her weight anxiously as she bit the inside of her cheek. The eighteen year old girl stood in the middle of a cold white room. Lined against all four walls were rows of computers unlike any she had ever seen before. They were black, thin, and sleek. Ginny would guess that all the computers were top of the line brand-new high tech pieces of technology.

Ginny glanced to the right side of her before quickly glancing back and continuing to stare at the door. Her brief glance allowed her to once again study the two other people in the room with her. The one directly next to her, who Ginny was fairly certain had earlier introduced himself as Akihiko Minoto, was a tall man with matching blue hair and blue eyes. The other boy who was on the other side of Akihiko was only a year older than Ginny and was a couple of inches taller than Akihiko. Craig Stevens, who Ginny had also been introduced to earlier, stood tall as he also stared at the door and Ginny detected the vast amounts of kindness in his blue eyes.

Finally, the heavy metal door clicked as it unlocked and a woman, maybe in her late twenties or early thirties entered the room. The dark skinned woman wore her hair back in a tight bun and was dressed in a tan uniform of some sort that Ginny identified as her Charlies.

"Good afternoon Cadets. I'm Major Greenway. I will for the most part be your instructor while you're here at Camp Pendleton. You have all been chosen for the Logistic Element of the Alpha Taskforce." Victoria informed the small group of people in front of her. "On some days you will be training with Captain Yakota on the Quarter Deck but for the most part you will be with me. This is the computer lab. We will meet here every day at 1000 hours with the exception of weekend."

Victoria walked briskly from her spot in front of the three young adults to stand at one of the computers.

"Cadet Akihiko Minoto, this is your workstation." Victoria called out looking at the list she held in her hands.

"Cadet Regina Pasternak, this will be your workstation." Victoria told the young girl and Ginny moved to stand behind the large computer.

"Cadet Craig Stevens, this is your work station." Victoria called to the last boy, and only metahuman of the group.

The three cadets took their seat behind their computers and suddenly the computer flickered from a black screen to a colorful one. A familiar hum of the computers booting up filled the room and Ginny cringed at the sound noise.

"The computers use facial recognition technology in order to log you into the computer. This is as secure as the computers get. The program is still a little faulty so as a backup you can use your nine digit ID number that was issued to you this morning as an alternative way to get into the computer." Victoria explained further and suddenly Craig felt uncomfortable with the fact that this computer was smart enough to recognize his face.

"Today we're going to start learning Java. I realize that you may already know this language but regardless we are all going to start from the beginning and take it step by step." Victoria droned on and all Akihiko could focus on his how the tan colored skirt was tight around Victoria's body.

Victoria pulled out three pairs of large headphones that were sitting in a cardboard box besides her.

"Your goal," She informed them as she handed out the black headphones, "is to finish lessons one, two, and three before 1200 hours."

Akihiko resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he felt like he was back in school inside of a part of a highly classified military taskforce. He picked up I headphones that had been handed to him by Victoria and plugged the small metal part into the headphone jack at the base of the computer. He placed the headphones over his ears before double clicking the small folder that read 'Java Lesson One'. As a robotically cheerful voice began to drone on over the headphones Akihiko bit back a moan. This was going to be a long hour.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **January 13 – 1200 hours**_

Wolfgang picked up his white tray and thanked the older lady at the end of the chow hall line for his food. He walked to the small white plastic table that the rest of his squad was occupying and took a seat next to Lydia and across from Lyrik. Next to Lydia sat Shaun and across from Shaun sat Muru with Jacob sitting across from Lydia.

The six cadets ate in silence, everyone pretending to be extra interested in their food so that they wouldn't have to make awkward conversation with each other.

"Mind if we sit here with you guys?" A voice asked Wolfgang and Wolfgang turned to see three people standing uncomfortably as they awaited his answer.

"Uh, sure. Of course." Wolfgang answered and the three took seats next to Wolfgang and Lyrik.

"Wolfgang." Wolfgang introduced himself and the teen who had asked if they could sit there nodded.

"Craig." He informed the group. "This is Akihiko," He continued and pointed towards the man with blue hair and blue eyes who was sitting next to him, "and this is Ginny." He said as he gestured to the blonde haired and grey eyed girl who sat next to Lyrik.

"I'm Lyrik."

"Jacob."

"Lydia."

"My name is Shaun."

Each of the cadets took turns introducing themselves until finally there was only Muru left, who didn't say anything but instead just continued his assault on mashed potatoes in front of him.

"That's Muru," Lydia said, deciding to introduce the alien. "Don't mind him," She added in a hushed whisper so Muru couldn't hear her, "He's just all sulky cause Lyrik beat him in hand to hand combat earlier."

Craig nodded before studying his tray that was in front of him. "So you guys must be the Ground Combat Element, right?" Craig asked before scooping a spoonful of peas and pilling the food into his mouth.

"Yeah. Are you three the Logistics Element?" Jacob asked, although he already knew the answer based on the ID badges of the three newcomers.

"Yeah." Craig answered and the conversation seemed to stop there.

"So Lydia," Akihiko started, drawing out the 'so' and Lydia resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the flirtatious tone, "Got a boyfriend?" He asked and Lydia actually did roll her eyes.

"No." She answered, resisting the urge to lie just to get the obviously flirting man off her case.

"Want one?" He asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows and Lydia simply raised an eyebrow in response before turning back to her food.

"I think that's a no." Jacob answered for the younger girl as he teased the twenty-year old man.

"For now." Akihiko allowed and decided that maybe he'd stop flirting until he knew everyone better.

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, which was fine with Ginny who was starting to feel agitated by all the noise. She resisted the urge to fidget in her seat as she forced herself to socially interact with the people so would be spending the next who knows how many months or even years with. She tried to stop her mind from wondering to the idea of home but couldn't stop it from entering her mind. She blinked back tears as she forced another bite of food into her mouth and tried to listen to whatever the rest of the cadets were talking about, however mundane it may have been.

* * *

 **AN: Just to further explain the premise of this story as well as what element the different characters have been placed in: the basic idea of this story is that a small group of people with special skills have been brought together by the government in order to create a sort of secret 'army' that can neutralize threats but are essentially controlled by the government. Since the government is in charge of the taskforce, it's run sort of like the military, more specifically the Marine Corps. The makeup of the taskforce is structured like a basic Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), which is comprised of four different elements: Ground Combat, Logistic Combat, Aviation Combat, and Command. For the sake of this story working with superheroes I chose to cut out the Aviation Combat Element and just kind of combined it into the Ground Element Combat.**

 **Ground Combat Element – The largest of the Elements, this Element is the 'men on the ground'. They are the ones in the front lines who operations include offensive, defensive, humanitarian, reconnaissance, and security. They are high trained physically and mentally.**

 **Logistic Combat Element – Much smaller than the Ground Combat Element, this Element provides support for the MEU behind the scenes. They are responsible for intelligence and counter-intelligence of foreign affairs. They work essentially as the 'tech support' of the MEU.**

 **Command Element – The smallest of the MEU Elements, this Element entails the 'higher-ups' who are in charge of the MEU and the different decisions they make. The handle public affairs along with commanding the MEU.**

 **There is a Colonel who is in charge of the entire MEU then a Lieutenant Colonel in charge of each Element. Obviously Colonel White is in charge of this story's MEU and the two Lieutenant Colonels in charge of the Ground Combat Element and the Logistics Element will come in later (that is if they come in at all.)**

 **Now, disclaimer time. I do not own Teen Titans. I do not own the characters in this story with the expectation of Colonel White. I do not own the cover image. Finally, I do not own the Marine Corps. Therefore, any information about the Marines and how they operate in this fiction is based on: information I got from my Dad who served in the Marines for thirty something years, information I got from my brother who is currently serving in the Marines overseas, information I got from the internet or just information that I picked up from being a military brat. This information could be totally off and I am not claiming that this is how the Marines actually work because I am sure it's not.**

 **Final Note: This is still an open SYOC! While I will not be accepting any more submissions for the taskforce, I will be accepting anti-hero applications and the form can be found on my profile.**

 **Thank you so much for reading this first chapter! I apologize if your character was not selected. I have over thirty applications and promised myself I'd cap the amount of characters I'd accept at eight and at this point I have collected eleven, so I'm well over what I wanted. Everyone's characters were so awesome and I wish I could use them all but I know I can't without jeopardizing the quality of this story. However, if you character was not accepted please feel free to reapply with them as anti-heroes.**

 **Please review!**

 **Grace**


	2. Chapter Two

**CHARACTER LIST:**

 **Bold indicates Metahuman**

 _Italics indicates Human_

 _ **Bold and Italics indicate Alien**_

Ground Combat Element:

 **Lydia Anderson, 17** \- StarsMagic

 **Wolfgang Lee, 20** \- mochafraptor

 _Jacob Lyland, 24_ – DeathDealer Inc

 _ **Shaun Jameson, 19**_ \- iamgoku

 _ **Lyrik Saunders, 19**_ – W. R. Winters

 _ **Murugon 'Muru' Gontalahad, 20**_ – NitroTheKid88

Logistics Combat Element:

 _Dr. Akihiko Minoto, 20_ – 0B13

 _Regina 'Ginny' Pasternak, 18_ – Rosemarie Benson

 **Craig Stevens, 19** – MediaMan18

Command Element:

 _Colonel Donald White, 54_ – Graceful Petals

 _Major Victoria Greenway, 31_ – ThatGuy222

 **Captain Zephyr Yakota, 24** – Silver Blitz15

 **Lance Corporal Axel Turner, 18 –** grimbutnotalways

* * *

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **January 26, 2016 – 0700 hours**_

To say Shaun was tired would be an understatement. He had only been living at Camp Pendleton for less than two weeks and already the early morning drill practices and late night espionage training had screwed up his sleep schedule so badly that he was running on maybe five hours of sleep a night, if he was lucky.

Shaun stared straight forward as the Ground Combat Element made their ninth lap around the track in the same rigid formation as they had been assigned the first day. Shaun wasn't bothered by the brisk air that seemed to be stinging everyone else's cheeks, nor was he bothered by the fact that they were starting on their third mile, instead Shaun was bothered by the slow pace they were all forced to go in order to ensure that they all stayed in their squad formation.

Being forced to run at the same human speed of five other people had to be the worst punishment ever concocted by the military. It was almost painful for Shaun to run at such a slow pace. Stealing a quick glance to his side Shaun could tell that Muru felt the same way. The Tenburr Alien's face was contoured with an overly frustrated look as he maintained the steady pace of the group. Shaun knew that Muru could have easily lapped all of the group within seconds and the fact that he was forced to stay with the rest of the squad was killing him.

On the first day that they were forced to run as a squad, a form of punishment as a result of Wolfgang deciding to put switch the ketchup in the refrigerator with hot sauce as a prank for Muru but accidently resulted in Major Greenway consuming the hot sauce with her meal instead, it was clear who the runners were and who they weren't.

Muru and Shaun's alien origins seemed to lend a hand in making them the fastest runners of the group, although Muru far outran Shaun. Lyrik's alien heritage didn't seem to make him much of a fast runner and the nineteen year old instead opted for a steady jog for the five mile run. Lydia was the next fastest surprisingly and claimed that she ran track for three years before joining the taskforce and Shaun found that she was really only a couple of feet behind him for most of the five miles. Wolfgang was the slowest, which Shaun found ironic since it was his fault that they were being forced to run five miles, and Jacob just seemed to disappear altogether until the very end in which he finished right after Lydia and before Lyrik.

After that, they were forced to run an additional five miles and that time they had to stay in their squad formation, which was absolutely a thousand times worse than running by themselves. Everyone had to slow their pace to match Wolfgang and it took Shaun twice as long to finish the five miles.

It had become a daily occurrence in which everyone was forced to wake up at o-five-hundred hours and begin their 'squad march' as Major Greenway called it by o-six-hundred hours until they were rescued by Captain Yakota who came to take them for more basic training.

Wolfgang was beginning to hate his life. He felt terrible that he had caused the squad to endure such long and early hours and on top of it he felt double terrible that they had to slow their pace for him. He tried hard to look on the bright side of it although it was getting more difficult as the early mornings went on. Although Lydia was still nice to him and made an effort to talk to him and include him in conversations, she was the only one who seemed to do so. Jacob was cordial enough but Wolfgang could sense an underlying annoyance that the older man had for him. Lyrik was never one to say anything as it was so Wolfgang couldn't be sure of his opinions on the topic. When Wolfgang asked him a couple of days ago the alien teen had responded with, "If it wasn't something you had done they would have found another reason to make us march in the morning. It's part of being in the military." Wolfgang wagered from that answer that he wasn't too mad if mad at all. Muru really seemed to despise him, which Wolfgang actually found didn't bother him too much as Muru didn't like anyone (besides Lydia who had a weird way of making everyone like her). Shaun was the one who really troubled Wolfgang. Shaun, who was a kind, granted somewhat naïve, alien who got along with everyone and never seemed to be angry. Shaun, who upon meeting Wolfgang declared him his earth best friend and told him everything he planned for them to do. Shaun, who shared a barrack with Wolfgang and barely said two words to him anymore.

Wolfgang wasn't sure how, but he did know that he was going to make it up to the Tamaranean boy. Just as soon as he caught his breath.

Lyrik didn't mind the early morning runs. He found that the air was crisper in the morning and that the drills were the least social thing the squad did together, which Lyrik enjoyed because he wasn't a huge fan of the times when everyone would just sit around and talk. It wasn't his style and he wasn't sure if he'd ever be comfortable enough with the members of his team to actually share his own feelings. He didn't mind listening to the others talk about how they felt and how they were homesick, it was just when they turned to him with expecting eyes as if asking why he did join in and voice his complaints that he found himself truly growing uncomfortable.

Despite the expectation to be social, Lyrik actually found himself enjoying the time he spent with the rest of the squad. The kitchen that was found just off of the Ground Combat Element's squad bay was always fully stocked and had state of the art appliances that Lyrik was allowed to use anytime he wasn't training and Lyrik found the Lydia was more than willing to keep the older teen company as he baked even though she wasn't a good baker anyway. Wolfgang seemed to really look to Lyrik as someone who gave good advice and Lyrik was touched that Wolfgang seemed to trust him so much. Jacob, despite his slightly off yet charming attitude, made Lyrik feel oddly protected and as if no one was going to judge him when Jacob was around. Shaun was friendly to everyone and made Lyrik feel like less of an outsider seeing as he wasn't completely from Earth either. Muru, no matter his tough exterior that he put out, was actually someone who Lyrik could laugh with as their senses of humor were oddly similar.

Lyrik was slightly worried that he may have been getting too comfortable with a group of people who he had only known for two weeks yet he couldn't help but relax when he was in their presence.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **January 26, 2016 – 1000 hours**_

The upside to working for the Logistics Combat Element, Akihiko had learned, was that often their hours would start much later than the Ground Combat Element and end much earlier. They didn't have any long strenuous hours of physical exercise nor were they awoke in the middle of the night for some bizarre training exercise. If they did have PT they really only ran about three miles and did a couple of core exercises before returning to the dungeon that they worked in. The downside, Akihiko also discovered, was that working in Logistics was _boring_. Only two weeks in and they had already mastered Java, Visual Basic, HTML, C++, PHP, and Shell. Granted there was an estimated two hundred fifty-six programming languages in the world and according to Major Greenway they were expected to learn most, if not all of them. Even so, it seemed that no one had expected Akihiko, Craig, and Ginny to learn the languages so fast but they were geniuses for God's sake. Learning programming languages was like learning a new type of math, even if there was new elements and ways to solve a problem it still all related back to each other.

What was even worse than being bored though was the fact that Akihiko learned that the adorable little blonde who sat next to him every day was a _lesbian_. She had a girlfriend and Akihiko had absolutely no shot with her which pretty much made his daily life a living hell. In total he had seen three girls in the last two weeks. One was his superior office, who, while hot, scared him more than he'd like to admit and besides that was engaged to be married to a buff Lieutenant Colonel who was much bigger than Akihiko. Another was a girl who was a lesbian and who Akihiko was beginning to look at as a little sister rather than a hot girl who he worked with. And the last girl was someone who Akihiko only saw during meal times for the most part and who continued to completely reject his advances.

Akihiko needed girls to keep going. He was going stir crazy with being surrounded by only three girls and he didn't know how much he could take.

"Good Morning Cadets." Victoria greeted the three prodigies as she entered the room holding a small banged up cardboard box.

Craig and Akihiko both managed to throw out quiet hellos as they spun in their seats to face the center of the room and Ginny simply turned to look at Victoria with wide eyes.

"Please tell we're not going to start learning another language, I think my brain might be fried from learning C++ yesterday." Craig groaned and rubbed his hands over his eyes glaring wearily at the suspicious box that Victoria was cradling.

"No languages today," Victoria answered and was cut off by Akihiko and Craig's hollers of joy as they high fived each other over Ginny's head. "Instead we're going to play a little game." Victoria finished causing both boys to stop their celebration to glance at Victoria curiously.

"What kind of game?" Akihiko asked leaning forward in his seat slightly.

"A programming game." Victoria answered with a slight smirk and Craig's eyes narrowed.

"Programing game?" He repeated and sounded almost skeptical. He was really getting tired of all the programming. Craig was more of an inventor then a programmer and for the last two weeks he had been at a serious disadvantage as he was forced to learn at the same speed as two humans who were clearly cut out for programming. Craig tried not to become discouraged but late nights he had endured trying to keep up with his squad members were definitely starting to wane on his attitude.

"We're going to play find the file. On the State Department's private server, I have hidden a folder entitled 'TA'. The State Department has one of the most secure servers in the nation if not the world and your objective is to break their code and retrieve the file. First person to find it wins." Victoria explained.

"And what do we win exactly?" Akihiko asked flirtatiously, wagging his eyebrows. He may not have a chance with the older woman but that didn't detour his habitual flirting tendencies.

"The rest of the day off." Victoria answered before diving into the cardboard box she had brought and pulling out three large stacks of paper that were bound together. "Since we've never practiced hacking and decoding before I'm going to give you a little cheat packet."

"Little?" Craig repeated as Victoria dropped the large and heavy packet into his lap. "This has to be like five hundred pages!" He exclaimed and Victoria turned to him and gave him a mock surprise expression.

"Would you rather attempt to hack into one of the most secure servers in history by yourself Stevens?" She asked and Craig had to restrain from actually moaning out loud.

"No Ma'am." He answered, his voice dead as he lifted the packet up to his desk.

Victoria smirked as his answered but had expected as much. "Any other comments from the peanut gallery?" She asked, looking pointedly at Akihiko as she knew Ginny wasn't the type to stir up trouble.

Akihiko gave her the same dead look Craig had given her before swiveling in his chair to face his desktop silently.

Victoria smirked in victory as she watched the three cadets begin to get to work trying to hack into the State Department, a task she had faith the three adults could handle. Although young they had more than proved themselves in the last couple of weeks and she hadn't been disappointed yet.

Ginny plugged her headphones into the audio jack and turned on her music in order to soothe her nerves. She didn't like the idea of being pitted against one another. She didn't like that it was like she was being timed. It made her nervous and anxious to say the least. None the less, she wasn't going to be disheartened from doing her best.

Her fingertips flying across the keyboard, Ginny quickly typed in the State Department's website into the search engine of google and clicked on the official website that popped up as the first result. She scanned over the page quickly before opening up the code that site was using in HTML on a new tab. She once again scanned the code rather quickly, taking note of the firewalls that began to appear the deeper she got into the website. She made the screen smaller and opened up the bot app she had on her computer and she copied the basic HTML url code into the app and her computer flickered black before allowing her access into the State Department website.

Ginny allowed the corners of her mouth to tip upwards slightly as she broke past the first firewall that was set to slow down hackers. She noticed the pattern the programmer had used rather quickly taking note of how the sequence of code would be random expect for the repeated six zero three command that repeated every four lines. The programmer was attempting to throw off amateur hackers by spacing the command out so much but keeping it close enough that if someone was to get too close that command would block them out. It was clever, but Ginny was cleverer. She disabled the command allowing her to break past three of the nineteen firewalls that she had to hack through before she could retrieve the file.

Ginny narrowed her eyes and silently accepted the challenge as her typing began to pick up speed.

Craig continued to glance between his computer screen and the second page of the five hundred page packet and he was tempted to throw the packet at the desktop that was mocking him. Craig risked a glance to his side and saw Ginny hunched over her keyboard typing away faster than Craig could keep up with. What was more curious was Akihiko on the other side of Ginny leaned back in his chair, his feet up on the desk, hands behind his head, with a smug impression on his face.

"Did you already give up Akihiko?" Craig asked critically as he continued to attempt to decode the impossible text in front of him.

"Nope. I'm gonna win this game." Akihiko cockily announced.

"By just sitting there?" Craig snorted in disbelief.

"No my young naïve friend," Akihiko said as if Craig was a small child.

"Only a year younger than you." Craig interrupted already annoyed with the conversation.

"I made a program that's going to decode this way faster than I could and then all I have to do is press enter and the TA file is mine." Akihiko explained and Craig wanted to struggle the smug expression off the twenty year olds face.

"Good for you." Craig remarked with a roll of his eyes before turning back to his own work.

Before he could torture himself with more terms he didn't understand and instructions that didn't make sense, Craig was distracted by the ding of Akihiko's computer.

"Ah! That would be my cue!" Akihiko smiled arrogantly as he swung his feet off of his desk and rolled closer to the keyboard. "Hope you like working late." He told Craig as his finger slowly inched closer to the enter button.

Craig was really starting to hate Akihiko.

As Akihiko's finger smashed into the enter button the entire computer's screen light up brightly and a long high pitched beep sounded out causing Craig to jump. He was glad Ginny had headphones on and was so focused on the game otherwise he was sure she would be having a meltdown at the loud sound.

Akihiko's computer made one more pitiful noise before going black completely and leaving Akihiko in a stunned silence. However, Craig found his voice fairly easily.

"Hope you like working late." He mocked and turned back to his computer with a new determination gleaning in his eyes.

"And this is why we don't take shortcuts or depend on bots to do our work for us." Victoria said as she slowly approached the embarrassed Akihiko. "Go ahead and move to a different computer and start again." She signed and Akihiko did as he was told without any sort of comment.

Ginny's eyes widened as she broke through the final firewall of the server and suddenly her computer screen mirror that of any State Department computer screen. She quickly double clicked the folder label 'TA' and dragged it over to her own computer screen before smiling in triumph.

"Well it looks like Pasternak wins." Victoria remarked and Ginny jumped as she realized the older woman was standing over her shoulder for the first time. "Good work." She said as she nodded her head towards the blonde girl and Ginny felt her face flush with a mixture of embarrassment and pride.

"Congratulations Ginny, if anyone deserves a day off, it's you." Craig said as he smiled politely at the girl, and he did mean it. Even though he would have practically killed for a day off Ginny was by far one of the smartest people he had ever met and she was a hard worker unlike someone else he knew.

"Yeah good job Ginny." Akihiko also congratulated but it was unenthusiastic to say the least.

Ginny was too excited to notice Akihiko's poor attitude though. She had actually won. The youngest member of the Logistic Element as well as the only girl had beaten both Craig and Akihiko, who were certified geniuses. For the last two weeks Ginny had felt like the outsider when it came to the other programmers as they both seemed to just click with each other better then they clicked with her. That was often the case she found when it came to making new friends but she just felt like she blended in with the wall when she was with Craig and Akihiko. The two boys didn't make Ginny feel this way on purpose, but it didn't mean she didn't feel left out every time she watched them so easily interact.

Now, however, all eyes were on Ginny and Ginny thought her heart was going to leap out of her chest at the attention. They were all proud of _her._ They were all impressed by _her._ They were all congratulating _her._ And for the first time in two weeks Ginny began to feel like she belonged.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **January 26, 2016 – 1200 hours**_

"That's great Ginny! Congratulations!" Lydia cheered for her older friend as she gave the eighteen year old a hug.

"Nice job Pasternak!" Wolfgang also congratulated the teen as he shoved food into his mouth.

"Thank you." Ginny squeaked out as she bowed her head, embarrassed by all the attention she was getting from her win.

"What are you going to do with your day off?" Jacob asked as he stirred the oddly colored stew that filled his bowl.

Ginny shrugged and was suddenly overcome with a terrifying thought. She had six hours that weren't scheduled out for the rest of the day and she didn't know what to do with them. Ginny couldn't function without a schedule and now thanks to her win her entire day's schedule was thrown out the window and Ginny had to figure out what to do with that extra time. Anxiety began to build in her chest at the idea that she was break routine. She didn't want to do anything other than join the rest of the Logistic Combat Element as they learned a new language or did something important. Suddenly another thought popped into her head. What if she got behind because she had the rest of the day off? What if she couldn't keep up with Craig and Akihiko all because she wasted the next six hours doing pointless activities instead of sticking to her usually schedule.

Ginny felt tears pricking at the back of her eyes and her breath beginning to pick up speed as her chest heaved and she felt herself unable to obtain oxygen. Her heart thumped inside her chest faster than she could think and all she could hear was her own heart beat pounding in her ears.

"Hey! Ginny! It's okay! Ginny, it's fine!" Lydia cooed out as she gripped Ginny's hand forced Ginny's wild eyes to meet her own.

"But my schedule! It's ruined. I'm going to fall behind and I won't understand and I don't know what to do with time and I and I and I-" Ginny stuttered out, her words short and her voice panicking.

"You can still stick to your schedule if that's what you want to do Ginny." Lydia told her soothingly. "You don't have to take the day off if you don't want to. It's your decision."

Ginny's breath caught in her throat as she slowly processed Lydia's words and nodded slowly. Lydia smiled encouragingly and Ginny slowed her breathing before completely calming herself down, her heart slowing and the fog in her mind clearing.

The two girls turned back to their lunches, Ginny still slightly frazzled but no longer having an anxiety attack and Lydia not giving the encounter a second thought.

Akihiko opened his mouth and Lyrik worried for a second that he was going to make a comment that would be poorly timed and poorly thought out but luckily the twenty year old thought better of it and instead just returned to his stew without a word.

Jacob decided that the best way to draw attention off of Ginny and her mini meltdown was to change the topic. "I heard we might get a day off soon." He commented offhandedly and took another spoonful of the stew that although looked off putting didn't taste terrible.

"No way! Really?" Craig asked excitedly and Jacob could see the teen practically bouncing in his seat.

"Where'd you hear that?" Muru asked suspiciously without even turning to look at Jacob.

Jacob shrugged. "Overhead Major Greenway and Captain Yakota talking about it."

"How awesome would it be to get a day off?!" Akihiko half asked half stated as he began to think about what he would do with a day off.

"We've only been here for two weeks." Lyrik remarked disinterested in the conversation.

"Yeah, two weeks starring at the same white walls and the same eleven people every day." Akihiko responded sardonically. And it was true. They really hadn't had much human interaction besides each other, Colonel White, and Victoria and Zephyr.

"What would you guys do with a day off?" Craig asked curiously and the group contemplated their answers.

"I would go and pick up as many chicks as you possibly can in twenty-four hours." Akihiko responded first and Lydia turned to look pointedly at Craig who was sitting next to Akihiko.

"Right. On it." Craig responded and then gave Akihiko a quick smack on the back of the head.

"Hey!" Akihiko cried in protest but no one said anything.

"I would go to a shop of pizzas!" Shaun announced and everyone turned to give him a strange look.

"They serve pizza on Fridays Shaun." Lyrik told the half-alien softly and Shaun smiled.

"I know. However, when I lived on Earth when I was younger my father used to take me to a shop of pizzas for my day of birth." Shaun shared, his eyes lightly up with the memory.

"I didn't know you used to live on Earth." Jacob said, his eyebrows furring.

"My father is a native of this planet." Shaun answered simply before turning his attention back to his food and everyone could feel the shift in mood and decided not to question Shaun further.

"I'd go visit my family." Muru admitted gruffly surprising everyone.

"Me too." Lydia added quickly as to not make Muru feel awkward.

"I would probably go take a baking class at Mira Coasta College." Lyrik said and his answer didn't surprise anyone. "Wolfgang?" Lyrik asked and Wolfgang contemplated it for a moment.

"Well comic-con is in San Diego and I've always wanted to go to that." Wolfgang answered after some thought.

"I would so go to that with you!" Craig excitedly said and grew excited and the prospect of getting to go to comic-con.

"Wait, can I change my answer?" Akihiko asked. "Because I want to go to comic-con too!"

"We could do a group costume!" Craig said excitedly and the three adults almost looked like little kids bouncing up and down in their seats.

"You do realize this is all hypothetical right?" Jacob asked, ruining their fun as their faces crashed.

"Well what would you do Jacob?" Craig asked, and there was almost a slight pout to his face.

"Unlike the rest of you I can legally drink. I'd probably spend my day off in a bar." Jacob said honestly.

The group laughed light heartedly at the eldest confession, all just trying to picture Jacob, who was definitely a mystery, anywhere besides Camp Pendleton.

"I apologize if I am interrupting anything." Zephyr's voice suddenly said, cutting through the laughter.

The group looked up at Zephyr's arrival and noticed the tall blonde man standing behind him. The blue-eyed boy's face was covered in a grin and his hands were stuffed into the pockets of his desert cammies that he was wearing.

"Taskforce, this is Lance Corporal Axel Tanner." Zephyr introduced him and he gave the group a friendly wave.

"Nice to meet you all. Don't worry you don't have to introduce yourselves. I've read all your files." Axel said with ease and something about his tone made everyone feel relaxed. "Let's see," Axel said as he eyed Lyrik, "Saunders, Lee, Lyland, Stevens, Pasternak, Anderson, Jameson, Minoto, and Gontalahad, right?" Axel guessed and Jacob nodded his head.

"Very impressive." Jacob commended and Axel shrugged, his eyes gleaming with an odd sort of arrogance.

"What can I say? I'm perceptive." Axel said without shame in his voice.

"Lance Corporal Tanner will be joining the taskforce." Zephyr informed the group of nine, all of whom at the similar reaction of confusion.

"He will be a part of both Elements in a way and act as a sort of 'ringer', if you would excuse my colloquial language." Zephyr continued on and seemed to grimace at the word ringer.

"Ringer?" Shaun echoed, confused by the term.

"It's like someone who is experienced and competes or works with people who are less experienced. So like they bring up the group's average." Lydia explained but Shaun still looked confused by the concept.

"Lance Corporal Tanner graduated from basic training approximately two months ago and since then has risen from the rank of Private First Class to Lance Corporal. He is more than adequate in his hand to hand combat skills and he has the MOS 0211." Zephyr briefed the nine cadets, all of whom gained a blank look as they didn't know what the MOS 0211 was.

"I studied counter intelligence and human intelligence." Axel filled in helpfully after he saw their blank looks.

"Cool." Craig commented and nodded his head at the younger teen.

"So are you going to join us for lunch?" Akihiko asked and the clean cut young man shook his head as a negative.

"Captain Yakota is going to finish showing me around the facilities. Plus, I still need to drop my sea bag off at my barracks." Axel told the recruits, although he didn't sound that disappointed.

"Oh, well it was nice meeting you!" Lydia supplied for the group.

Axel nodded and went to follow Zephyr who had already began to move on before turning back to the table and shouting "Oorah!"

"Oorah?" Shaun repeated once Axel was out of earshot and turned to Lydia for an explanation.

"I think it's military thing." Lydia guessed although her voice didn't sound very sure.

"I thought it was hooah?" Craig stated and the others paused for a moment, pondering the word, before decided it really didn't matter and turning back to their food.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **February 9, 2016 – 1400 hours**_

Jacob stood with his arms crossed against his chest and with the rest of the Ground Combat Element behind in as well as the Logistics Combat Element, which was a strange occurrence as usually the only time Jacob saw the other three recruits was at meal times. In the month that Jacob had been training at Camp Pendleton the two Elements had never merged to train together, so whatever they were doing today was something different than they had been doing.

Another striking fact that stood out to Jacob was the fact that they were in a brand new room that Jacob had never seen before. It was a secluded room with entirely white walls, floors, and ceilings. Other than the door and a small thermostat looking device on the north wall there was absolutely nothing decorating the stark room. At the top of the south wall was a panel of glass that Jacob assumed allow people to look into the room since it was too high up for it to really be a window.

"Today we're going to put you through your first simulation." Victoria told the group as she, Captain Yakota, Colonel White, Lance Corporal Tanner, and two other military looking guys stood in front of them.

"Your objective is simple. Rescue the hostage with causing any civilian casualties. Tanner will be with Logistics in our command central." Victoria continued on before gesturing for Axel to hand out the small devices he had been carrying in a plastic bag. "These are your com-links. They go in your ear and they should survive most damage that could occur in battle."

Jacob collected the small black device in his hand and studied it quickly. It was circular in shape and looked like it could be broken with a simple snap of his fingers.

"To activate your communication links you must to tap the device once when it is situated in your ear canal. Once activated you are able to hear and be heard by the members of your taskforce. Double tap your communication link and your microphone will be muted. Finally, with three taps you are able to deactivate your communication link, although this is never recommended while in battle." Zephyr explained the com-links further and everyone put the small devices into their ears.

"Okay, well Logistics follow me, Ground Combat stay here. The simulation will start in a minute." Victoria told the two groups before leading Ginny, Akihiko, Craig, and Axel out of the large white room and Colonel White, Captain Yakota, and the other two men followed the small group.

Jacob turned to look at the rest of his Element, all of whom had various degrees of nervousness playing out across their faces.

"They never told us who the hostage was." Lyrik noted after a moment who an odd degree of calmness.

"Why would they, that would make this entire thing easier." Muru commented gruffly as he looked away annoyed.

Shaun shot him a confused look and opened his mouth as if he was going to ask why Muru wouldn't want it to be easier but Lydia stopped him with a simple hand on his arm. "He's being sarcastic." She whispered and Shaun nodded, looking only slightly less confused.

"So is this room like a giant simulator or something?" Wolfgang asked as he took another look around the room.

"I'm assuming so since they didn't move us to a new room." Jacob answered even though Wolfgang wasn't really looking for a reply.

"Ground Combat, your simulation begins now." A robotic voice announced over the speakers that Jacob hadn't seen and slowly the stark white room began to mold itself into a new environment.

Jacob suddenly took in dark gray skies and the six cadets were soon being casted in shadows by tall dark buildings. Litter blew around by their feet and street lamps illuminated the other wise dark street they were on.

"Are we on Gotham?" Lydia asked as she glanced around.

"Everyone turn on your comms." Lyrik commanded and the group did as they were told.

"Hello?" Wolfgang asked and waited for a response to cut through the static.

"Guys? Can you hear me?" Craig asked, his voice finally coming through as the static seemed to subside.

"Craig, can you tell us where we are?" Jacob asked even though he had a feeling that Lydia was right and they were in the infamous city of Gotham.

"Gotham City, 72nd and 3rd street." Craig answered.

"We can track your location, or I guess technically your fake location, using your comms and since we have computers up here we can guide you." Axel told the Element as he leaned over Craig's shoulder to look at his computer screen.

"Great. Do you have any idea who the hostage we're suppose to rescue is?" Jacob asked as the group continued to blend in with the shadows of Gotham.

"Bruce Wayne. Kidnapped by a terrorist organization called the Ring while at Wayne Industries Annual Gala." Axel told the six cadets as he scanned Craig's computer for any additional information.

"I don't suppose you know where they're holding him?" Lyrik dared to ask although his tone carried a hint of sarcasm.

"Nope, sorry." Axel responded shortly.

"Wait I got something!" Akihiko called out from his workstation and Axel turned to walk over to him. "Don't know where Wayne is being held but according to the NSA, Ring members should all have the same marking on their neck. It looks like a, uh," Akihiko paused struggling to describe the strange marking. "It's basically a circle with a sort of spiky edge." He summed up before continuing to scroll.

"Go to the Gala and see if you can find any Ring operatives. Usually terrorist organizations like this will leave a couple of men behind to ward off anybody from possibly following them. Axel instructed before turning around to look at Ginny's computer screen. "The Gala is being held on 70th and 4th street at the Saint Marcus's Hotel." Axel said and then turned back to Craig's computer. "You need to go down two streets and then over to the right a street."

"Right, should be easy enough." Wolfgang mumbled as the six recruits walked towards the coordinates that Axel sent them to.

Arriving at the grand hotel Muru took notice of how many police cars and new vans seemed to swarm the scene. It was odd, even though he knew it was a simulation he couldn't help but think how real everything seemed and felt. The noise of busy people making their way through Gotham and of police trying to hold reporters back who continued to yell questions, the smell of pollution and dirt that filled the air, and the chilly air that engulfed the Element all seemed too real to simply be an illusion.

Muru followed Jacob was they forced their way through the crowd of people before being blocked by the police barricade. A large heavier set man dressed in a blue police officer uniform made his way over to the group, his lips sneering into a frown underneath the bushy and unkempt black mustache.

"What are you kids doing here?" He questioned, his voice thick with an accent that Muru couldn't quite place. "This is a crime scene. Go home." He ordered before turning his back to the teens.

"Wait! We are here to assist you!" Shaun cried out and the man paused in his step to look back at the group before bursting into laughter.

"We don't need help from a couple of hoodlum delinquents." He said as he gripped at his belt with both hands.

"But Officer!" Shaun protested again before being interrupted by another man calling to the mustached officer.

"Bennett!"

Bennett, as Jacob assumed was his name, craned his head to the side to look at the other officer who called for him and exposed his neck to the group of six.

Jacob's eyes narrowed as he took in what he thought was what Akihiko had been trying to describe. The tattoo stood out against the man's pale neck and caught the attention of everyone in the taskforce.

Muru struck out before any of them had even had the chance to think about what was happening and hit the man swiftly in the neck once causing the much older man to collapse to the ground. Everyone turned to look at Muru who shrugged. "Element of surprise." He said simply and then leaned down to drag Bennett by his arms to an adjacent alleyway.

The others followed quickly and surrounded the man in a loose half circle, unsure of how to proceed next.

"Now what?" Wolfgang asked into the com-link.

"Get the guy to give up where Wayne is." Axel answered simply.

"How are we to do that?" Shaun asked as he starred at the unconscious man.

"Haven't they taught you guys interrogation techniques yet?" Axel asked critically as he took a seat in one of the swiveling chairs.

"We can barely comprehended marching in a squad formation. I think interrogation techniques might be a little above our heads." Jacob sarcastically quipped as he crossed his arms over his chest despite the fact he couldn't see Axel.

"If you get him awake I can get him to tell us where Wayne is." Lydia spoke up, looking apprehensive about what she had just said as she rubbed her forearm subconsciously.

"How?" Muru asked disparagingly as he turned his glare onto the younger girl.

"Just wake him up." Lydia said as she shifted her weight uncomfortably.

No one moved for a moment and instead opted for staring at the brunette before Jacob rolled his eyes and moved forward to slap the face of the downed officer lightly.

"Wake up Bennett." He called in an almost sing-song voice and watched as the man's eyes crinkled together before opening.

He groaned as Jacob straightened up and stepped back. "What's going on?" He questioned brusquely as he slowly become aware of his surroundings.

Jacob shot Lydia a look telling her to go ahead and try to get the information from the man and Lydia hesitantly stepped forward.

She lowered herself to her knees so she was eye-level with the man before reaching forward to place both of her hands on his shoulders. Her eyes began to glow purple as energy seemed to pour from the girl.

"Where are you keeping Bruce Wayne?" She asked, her voice quiet yet it shook with power that Jacob had yet to hear from the seventeen year old girl.

Bennett snapped into a trance-like state as he stared straight forward and his mouth hung open a smidge.

"He's at the old Paper factory on the corner of 68 and 3rd." Bennett answered with his jaw slack and his face dead.

Lydia released her hold on the man and her eyes returned to her normal deep blue. She hesitantly looked up at the rest of the group and took note that for no one really seemed horrified by her ability.

"How'd you do that?" Wolfgang asked as Lydia pushed herself up off her knees.

"I can override someone's will for a short amount of time to make them tell the truth." She explained as she wiped her hands on her pants and avoided eye contact.

"Cool." Jacob commented as he noticed the girl's discomfort and Lydia's head snapped up in surprise at the comment before she shot Jacob a grateful smile.

"Okay, so you guys need to head towards that Paper Factory. And soon. If the timer of the simulation runs out, then it's a simulation fail." Axel told the group seeing how no one seemed to be moving.

"What about him?" Wolfgang asked as he looked pointedly at Bennett who was still slumped up against the brick alley wall in a dazed like manner.

"Oh, he'll be fine in a couple of seconds." Lydia responded as she also turned to look at the man.

"He's also not real." Akihiko reminded the group and rolled his eyes.

"Right." Wolfgang nodded and lead the group of the dark alley.

"Which way Axel?" Lyrik asked as they momentarily paused.

"Go one street right and two streets down." Axel instructed as he leaned back in his chair. "You guys would not do well in a major city, you know that?" Axel teased.

"Why don't you come in here and try this yourself." Muru aggressively suggested as the group rounded a corner.

"Please, I could navigate my way easily. I grew up in Star City." Axel retorted back and made a face despite the fact that they were in two separate rooms.

"Tanner." Ginny called, her voice sounding uneasy.

"Star City is nothing compared to Gotham." Muru told Axel in order to get a rise out of him.

"One second Ginny." Axel replied. "Star City is twice the city Gotham will ever be."

"Axel!" Ginny called again, her voice rising in panic.

"You wish Tanner." Muru growled out and Axel sat up in his chair.

"I know!" Axel responded.

"Axel, you need to see this!" Ginny cried out, her voice actually hysterical this time.

"What is it Ginny?" Axel asked tiredly as he turned in his chair to face her computer.

He did a double-take as he made sure the information he had read was correct and he stood up quickly.

"Ground Combat, abort! It's a trap!" He commanded loudly as the group began to step into the factory.

"What Ax-"

A loud explosion echoed through the com-sets as the Paper Factory went up in flames blasting the six Ground Combat members to the ground. Smoke filled the air and a ringing filled everyone's ears as the Paper Factory caught on fire and bright orange and red flames began to dance around the six winded cadets.

"Simulation failure. Simulation failure." A familiar female robotic voice played out throughout both rooms and the Paper Factory along with the rest of Gotham dissolved into the background leaving the same stark white room only this time the floor was littered with six dazed cadets.

"Shit." Axel cursed and ran his hand over his face as he shut his eyes tightly.

* * *

 **AN: Just a quick disclaimer, I don't know really anything about programming other than a class I took last year and that really didn't teach me much so all of this stuff about hacking is probably totally wrong. I tried to look up how to hack but it didn't really help much.**

 **Here is a list of military jargon that has been used in this story thus far just for your reference:**

 **Squad Bay – Living Quarters (Technically this is different from Barracks but in this story I kind of stretch the meaning and let it apply to Barracks too.)**

 **Barracks – Housing on base for unmarried Marines.**

 **Quarter Deck – Where PT training takes places for recruits.**

 **PT – Physical Training.**

 **Sea Bag – Duffle bag that Marine's use to carry personal items to new living quarters.**

 **Oorah – Verbal Greeting of Marines.**

 **Hooah – Army version of Oorah.**

 **MOS – Military Occupational Specialty**

 **Also for your reference, Axel is an enlisted Marine, so technically he's not an officer. However, all the other military personal that have appeared are Officers. The way their ranks going in highest to lowest is Colonel, Major, Captain. (Obviously there are other ranks in between these but these are the ones that I have been using for this story.)**

 **Thank you to** _ **0B13, StarsMagic, Guest, grimbutnotalways, mochafactor, iamgoku, DeathDealer Inc, W. R. Winters, GoldenCrest314, NitroTheKidd88, Odd Phenomenon, ThatGuy222,**_ **and** _ **JuliusTerrible**_ **for reviewing! I really appreciate that you guys took the time to review and it's what keeps me writing!**

 **Also, I forgot to credit the owners of the OCs last chapter so I went ahead and credited them this chapter, plus since last names are used to much in this story I figured that a character list might be usefully for a while until everyone gets more familiar with the characters.**

 **One last side note, in like a chapter or two I'd like to kind of preview the anti-heroes and their backstories so if you're planning to submit one, please hurry!**

 **I'll try to start making these author notes shorter, I promise.**

 **Please review!**

 **\- Grace**


	3. Chapter Three

**CHARACTER LIST:**

 **Bold indicates Metahuman**

 _Italics indicates Human_

 _ **Bold and Italics indicate Alien**_

Ground Combat Element:

 **Lydia Anderson, 17** \- StarsMagic

 **Wolfgang Lee, 20** \- mochafraptor

 _Jacob Lyland, 24_ – DeathDealer Inc

 _ **Shaun Jameson, 19**_ \- iamgoku

 _ **Lyrik Saunders, 19**_ – W. R. Winters

 _ **Murugon 'Muru' Gontalahad, 20**_ – NitroTheKid88

Logistics Combat Element:

 _Dr. Akihiko Minoto, 20_ – 0B13

 _Regina 'Ginny' Pasternak, 18_ – Rosemarie Benson

 **Craig Stevens, 19** – MediaMan18

Command Element:

 _Colonel Donald White, 54_ – Graceful Petals

 _Major Victoria Greenway, 31_ – ThatGuy222

 **Captain Zephyr Yakota, 24** – Silver Blitz15

 **Lance Corporal Axel Turner, 18 –** grimbutnotalways

* * *

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **February 23, 2016 – 1200 hours**_

"Where are we going?" Shaun asked for what felt like the hundredth time as he allowed Lydia to drag him through the halls of the compound excitedly.

"I told you, it's a surprise Shaun!" She answered, her voice laced with an underlying tone of excitement as she grabbed Shaun's hand to force him to follow her faster.

Shaun felt his face flush as her hand entwined with his and he suddenly felt strangely nerves. His heart began to beat faster and he worried that Lydia was going to think his hands were sweaty. It was strange, the way Lydia made his heart beat faster and being around her just made him strangely happy. He had never felt this way about someone. He felt so connected to the younger girl. Every time he looked at her his stomach dropped with anticipation and everything but her seemed to blur together. He related the feelings back to the fact that she was so kind to him and also so patient and willing to help introduce him to Earth's ways. He couldn't quite figure out what he was feeling but whatever it was it seemed to only grow stronger the more time he spent with her.

Lydia released Shaun's hand as them rounded a corner to stop in front of the Ground Combat's common room's door and Shaun shot Lydia a puzzled look.

"What-" He began to question but was cut off by Lydia shaking her head.

"Just wait." She told him patiently as she used her photo ID to open the door. The light turned green and the lock clicked as she stepped out of the way and gestured for Shaun to enter the room.

Shaun eyed her as confusion colored his face but did as she wanted him to and pushed open the door.

"Happy birthday!" A collective group of voices yelled from within the room and Shaun jumped in shock.

Situated in the middle of the room was a large table covered in a white table cloth where an expensive looking cake sat and Shaun could just make out the words 'Happy Birthday' on it. The entire room was filled with bright orange and purple streamers and balloons. Also in the room stood practically the entire compound including both Elements and even Major Greenway and Captain Yakota.

"I do not understand." Shaun said as he took a step in and Lydia followed, a smile covering her entire face.

"Today's your birthday!" She cheered excitedly, her hands collapsed together. "On Earth we celebrate the day someone was born because it's a big deal." She explained further.

Before Shaun could question the odd celebration any further Wolfgang and Craig approached him, both with wide smiles.

"How does it feel to be twenty?" Wolfgang asked and Shaun blinked once before shrugging a smile falling onto his face.

"It feels very similar to nineteen." Shaun answered and Wolfgang laughed.

"Come on man, you have to see the cake Lyrik made for you. It's literally the greatest cake in existence!" Wolfgang said as he pushed his roommate towards the white table.

Wolfgang hadn't been exaggerating. Shaun gapped at the large cake that was frosted in a purple frosting and decorated with cursive.

"I wasn't sure which flavor you liked better so half of it is chocolate and the other half is vanilla." Lyrik told Shaun as he came to pat him on the back.

"Thank you." Shaun told Lyrik as he turned away from the cake. "Thank you everyone. This is a most wondrous surprise!"

"Don't thank us, it was all Lydia's idea. She planned and made everything happen." Akihiko told Shaun and Lydia blushed as Shaun's eyes came onto her.

"Akihiko is being modest. Everyone helped. Akihiko, Axel and Muru blew up all the balloons, Jacob, Craig, and Ginny hung up all the streamers, Lyrik obviously baked the cake, and Wolfgang helped him." Lydia told Shaun quickly as she didn't want all the credit. "We all just wanted you to have a tradition earth birthday."

"We also have twenty candles that have your name on them." Wolfgang told Shaun as Jacob pulled out a lighter and began to light the small wax candles that stuck out of the birthday cake.

"Basically what happens is we sing you happy birthday and then you blow out the candles and make a wish." Jacob explained before Shaun even had the chance to ask what the candles were for.

"What do I wish for?" Shaun asked as his eyebrows knitted together.

"Whatever you want! Just don't tell anyone." Craig told the older boy as Jacob finished lighting the last candle.

"Okay everyone ready?" Victoria asked and everyone took a large breath before beginning to sing a song that Shaun vaguely remembered hearing before. Everyone sang in different keys and no one was very together but none the less the simple tune made Shaun's heart warm as he looked around at his teammates and co-workers.

Shaun looked around the room at the familiar faces that surrounded him and couldn't help but smile. He couldn't really find the right English words to describe how he was feeling but if he had to describe it in one word it would be warm. All over his body a warm and comforting feeling filled his body.

He looked at Wolfgang, his roommate, who had quickly become his best friend. Despite his previous anger with the twenty year old, Shaun found that he could always trust the man to have patience with him and treat him as an equal. Wolfgang's witty and sarcastic nature threw Shaun at first but he soon found himself enjoying bantering with the metahuman. Next to Wolfgang stood Jacob, who Shaun had yet to figure out, but the older man was always friendly to Shaun and willing to have a conversation. Lyrik, who was next to Jacob, was sort of like an older brother to everyone on the taskforce, even though he was younger than Jacob, Muru, Akihiko, Wolgang, and now him. Lyrik was always willing to lend an ear and give advice. Across the table stood Muru, who, despite having a chip on his shoulder, was always ready to help if he needed help. The fellow red-head may have put out a tough exterior but Shaun could see underneath it that the boy really did care about his teammates. Akihiko and Craig stood next to Muru, both grinning like idiots, and Shaun was filled with the urge to laugh because watching the two of them interact was like watching so sort of bad earth sitcom. Ginny stood off to the side a bit, but she looked like she was actually enjoying herself for once and that alone made Shaun's heart warm as he knew how difficult these large group situations were for Ginny. Lydia stood next to Ginny, easily offering her silent support for the older girl and Shaun's stomach once again dropped just by looking at her so he quickly looked away. Finally, there was Axel, who had joined the taskforce only a month before but was already making a name for himself. The Lance Corporal was sarcastic and pessimistic at best but he was always willing to listen and lend a hand when needed. He was calm and collect and Shaun found that Axel was one of the best people to go to if he wanted to hear anything straightforward.

Shaun realized that the group had stopped singing and they were all looking at him expectantly. Shaun looked down at the cake in front of him and with a large smile that he just couldn't shake from his face he bent down and blew out his candles. He didn't have anything to wish for. Right now, everything was perfect.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 13, 2016 – 1300 hours**_

Axel rounded the corner, annoyance causing his entire body to tense. Major Greenway had just suggested that he take the rest of the Logistics Taskforce out to the Exchange to get the necessary uniform requirements for the entire Taskforce as they had some sort of press conference coming up that the entire Taskforce was supposed to make their first appearance at. Axel, however, knew that Major Greenway's 'suggestion' was actually an order and he was not happy playing errand boy.

Axel was a highly trained Marine. He was not someone who should be sent to go pick up clothes. None the less, Marines did as they were told, and so Axel was grudgingly making his way to the computer lab in order to pick up the three members of the Logistics Element.

Axel didn't mind spending time with the three geniuses. At least he didn't mind much. At time they definitely made him feel stupid, such as when they discussed the dynamics of quantum physics like they were talking about the weather. Or when they managed to hack past secure servers faster than Axel can even log on to the computer. Not to say that Axel was dumb. In fact, he was far from it. The eighteen year old was a faster learner and graduated at the top of his class in high school. Unfortunately, he just wasn't smart enough to keep up with Akihiko, Ginny, and Craig. On the other hand, there were definitely times when Axel didn't mind hanging out with the three computer-wizzes. Once he got past Akihiko's flirty exterior he actually found that Akihiko is one of the only people who can match his sarcasm. Ginny was quiet and a little scary with how intelligent she was but overall she was really just a kind-hearted girl who was hard-working and dedicated to what she did. Craig was probably the easiest to get along with, as he sometimes seemed to struggle just as much as Axel did with all the computer lingo. Axel had discovered that Craig was just generally a funny and easy-going guy who didn't flaunt his intelligence.

Axel pushed open the door of the computer lab and was greeted by a breeze of cold air as he stepped into the room.

"Anyone up for a road trip?" He asked as the three occupants of the room spun around from their work stations to look at him.

"A road trip as in we're actually going to leave the building?" Akihiko asked and he looked ready to bounce out of his seat.

"Yep, we're going to the Exchange." Axel answered as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Yes!" Akihiko cheered as he stood up excitedly. "Finally, we get to see something other than the inside of this building!"

"Come on, we can take my truck over." Axel responded, his eye rolling a bit as he began to lead the others out of the room.

"You have a truck?" Craig asked suspiciously and Axel felt a little offended.

"Yeah, I have a truck." Axel responded back, and Craig read the aggressiveness the lied underneath his voice.

"Sorry, I just don't know why you're allowed to have a truck when no one leaves the compound." Craig explained, although he didn't sound too sorry for having asked the question.

"You guys aren't allowed to leave the compound. I, however, am." Axel informed the group and now Craig and Akihiko made sounds of protest.

"Why are you allowed to leave the compound?" Akihiko asked aggressively and Axel simply raised an eyebrow.

"Because I'm not here to train like you guys. I already went through boot camp. I've been assigned to the taskforce, just like Major Greenway and Captain Yakato." Axel told Akihiko in a calm manner and Akihiko's face shifted from annoyance to confusion.

"Wait, Major Greenway and Captain Yakato don't live here?" He asked and Axel let out a short bark of laughter.

"You're kidding right?" He asked and noticed the none of the three looked like they were joking. "Major Greenway is engaged. She lives with her fiancé. And Captain Yakato has a kid. They live in base housing on the other side of base."

"I didn't know Captain Yakato had a kid." Ginny said quietly and Axel shrugged.

"I don't think he brings her into work all too often. The military kind of frowns on that. You might meet her at a Squad picnic though." Axel told them and once again confusion laced all their features.

"Squad picnic?" Akihiko repeated and Axel sighed.

"The taskforce is part of a larger squad. And squads have picnics for families sometimes. It's a lot of fun. You get to see your commanding officers in a different setting, the kids usually play soccer or something with the younger Marines, they baroque some burgers and hotdogs." Axel explained. "I mean, we're pretty secluded from the rest of the squad, so you wouldn't know anyone at the picnic but it doesn't really matter if you know each other or not. Once you're a Marine you're part of the family."

"Sounds nice." Craig commented and Axel nodded.

"It is."

The group finally made their way to the front doors of the compound and Akihiko never thought he'd be happier to see something other than the inside of the compound in all his life.

"Hey Akihiko," Axel called as they took their first step into freedom, "Just warning you, the girls on base aren't like most girls you've met before signing up for the taskforce. They're Marines and they don't appreciate being hit on by guys like you. Just trust me when I say you should really not bother them."

Akihiko felt his spirit drop slightly at Axel's words as part of the reason why he was so excited to leave the compound was because he wanted to see some different girls then the ones he had been stuck with for the last two months. None the less, Akihiko nodded his head and Axel gave him a small and rare smile.

The approached Axel's truck rather quickly and Axel climbed into the driver's seat with Craig getting into the passenger's seat and Akihiko and Ginny climbing into the back.

As Axel started the engine and began to back out, Akihiko's excitement grew. He was so ready to see anything other than the inside of the compound. It felt so relieving to finally be able to get away from the white walled building, even if it was only for an hour or so. Any break he could take from staring at the same walls and the same computer screen would be a welcomed break.

While Akihiko's excitement grew the further the car drove away from the building, the more Ginny's dread grew. She didn't like experiencing new situations that she didn't know going into and she didn't like breaking her schedule like she was doing now. Ginny worked to keep herself calm like she had been practicing the last couple of weeks. She had gotten better at controlling her anxiety. Not that it wasn't still there, she just knew how to deal with it a little better now.

Ginny's thoughts were interrupted as Akihiko asked, "So what exactly are we doing at the exchange?"

"We're going to pick up some stuff for your dress blues." Axel answered and Akihiko made a face despite the fact that the younger man couldn't see him.

"Why?" Akihiko asked and Ginny could tell he wasn't thrilled to be going shopping.

"Because there's a press conference in like a week that Colonel White it going to be announcing the formation of the taskforce as well as what it's purpose is. And we all have to be there." Axel told Akihiko and his tone conveyed a sense of boredom with whole thing.

"Joy." Akihiko commented sarcastically and Ginny had to second his opinion. She definitely did not want to talk to the press or even just stand up there and let them all take pictures of her. The very idea set her nerves on edge as she thought about everyone staring at her and all the flashes of the cameras as well as the loud noise the media was sure to make.

"It won't be that bad." Axel promised, trying to ease everyone's nerves. "Colonel White will do all the talking and all you have to do is stand there at attention for like twenty minutes. Trust me, there are worst ways to be introduced to the world."

"So if you don't have to live in the compound since you already finished your basic training, does that mean eventually we'll be able to live elsewhere?" Craig asked, causing the entire conversation to turn from the press conference back to living in the compound.

"I don't know." Axel replied with a shrug. "I mean, besides the fact that a third of you are aliens and like half of you are metahumans, you guys are being trained in a different way than any other Marines have ever been trained before."

"What do you mean?" Akihiko questioned as he narrowed his eyes.

"I mean that it's actually kind of common for there to be a metahuman in boot camp now a days. I mean I'm a metahuman and I think there was like three others in boot camp with me. So the fact that you guys are metahumans and aliens isn't the problem. The problem is that you guys are going to be so highly trained and have so much natural ability that you can easily overthrow the government. Which scares people. The higher-ups want you guys in an environment where they can control you. Ya know, use you when they need you but keep an eye on you when they don't." Axel explained and Akihiko's eyes narrowed.

"So we're basically a weapon to them?" He asked and there was angry that Axel hadn't heard from the boy before.

"Technically you guys are more like a super computer. The Ground Combat Element is the weapon." Axel answered sardonically and Craig worried for a second that Akihiko may reach over the seat to struggle Axel.

"That's ridiculous." Akihiko scoffed, practically throwing himself back against the seat and Axel didn't think he'd seen the twenty year old so upset before.

"What did you expect when you signed up for the military?" Axel asked with a roll of his eyes. "Once you're in the military you're not an individual anymore, you're a part of the machine, a part of the unit."

"That's just not right." Akihiko responded but his voice was softer and there was less fight in it.

"The military does a lot of good. There's a reason that we have so much freedom here. There's a reason people get to feel safe when they go to bed at night. And that's us. With protect the innocent." Axel defended. "The system's not perfect but it works."

Akihiko considered Axel's words and supposed that the younger man was right. While he really didn't appreciate being used, he knew that what he was doing was important and made a difference and he supposed that for that reason he could let everything else go.

"We're here." Axel announced as the car pulled into a wide parking spot towards close to the large white building.

Ginny opened the door on her side and stepped out of the tall truck, studying the building in front of her. She couldn't help but think how overly ordinary it looked. It was a simple white building that stood only a story high and had 'MCX' labeled across the front in a blue font with a red strip running down the middle. Underneath the 'MCX' read 'Core Brands, Corps Value' and Ginny wondered if this was supposed to be funny. Also directly outside of the building were two twin flag poles, one from which the American flag flew and the other from with the Marine Corps flag flew.

Ginny followed Axel hesitantly as he led the group to the entrance of the Exchange and Akihiko and Craig fell in next to her.

"This is very underwhelming." Craig commented and Axel raised an eyebrow at him.

"What did you expect?" Axel asked and amusement colored his voice.

Craig shrugged with an indifferent look on his face. "Don't know." He answered honestly as he stuffed his hands further into his pockets. "Guess I just didn't think that it would look like a TJ Maxx."

"Sorry to disappoint." Axel said with a laugh and the small group began to wonder down the aisles of the store.

The walked in silence as Ginny, Akihiko, and Craig allowed Axel to lead them to the section with all the uniforms and the small accessories that went with the uniform.

Ginny was taken aback by how come and peaceful the entire store was. It was quiet for the most part and anyone talking talked in calm and low voices. Most people were alone and there weren't many people in the store at all. Ginny could actually feel herself being okay with the Exchange if she had a little bit longer to adjust.

"Okay, here's what we need." Axel announced as they turned to enter a narrow aisle that was full of different color badges and pins. "Your dress blues are already being ordered so all we really need it your rank badges and the emblem since you guys aren't receiving yours in boot camp like other Marines do."

"Here." Axel said as he picked up nine small black Marine Corps emblem pins and handed them to Akihiko. Axel paused for a moment, suddenly wondering why exactly Major Greenway had deemed this small shopping trip a four person job, but then decided it was probably because she wanted him to bond with the rest of the Element, which she claims he had been avoiding. Which he had. He didn't really feel the need to become close to any of the Logistics Element as he knew he would soon get orders to a different squad probably on the other side of the country. None the less, Major Greenway seemed to be convinced that this was why he was going to be spending the rest of his career with the Marines. He didn't both to try to tell her otherwise.

"What is this for?" Akihiko asked as he critically studied the small pin.

"It's something you get after the Crucible." Axel answered and seemed uninterested.

"What's the Crucible?" Craig asked and Axel sighed with slight annoyance.

"It's something you do during boot camp." Axel answered and suddenly felt like all his energy was drained from being forced to deal with people who knew next to nothing about the Marines. "It's a big deal and it's kind of like the final step before you become a Marine."

"Oh." Craig nodded and looked back down at the small pin in his hand.

"They just let you buy that kind of stuff here?" Akihiko asked, looking a little weary at the fact.

Axel shrugged. "Yeah, I mean if you lose it for whatever reason you'd have to have somewhere to buy a new one. Besides, it's not like just anyone can walk on base. You have to be in the military or a dependent of someone in the military."

Axel turned his attention back to finding the ranking badges and smiled as he found the small shelf full of the red and yellow arrow shaped badges.

"Finally." He muttered before picking up nine of the badges and turning back to the three awkward people who stood behind him. "Let's go check out. I'm starting to get a headache." He commanded and directly the last part of his sentence at Akihiko and Craig who seemed to be asking questions about everything possible.

As Axel checked out, Ginny, Akihiko and Craig waited awkwardly to the side, looking out of place and slightly lost.

"Man, do you ever feel like you just don't belong?" Craig asked out loud and Akihiko wasn't quite sure if he was looking for an answer but the older boy gave him one anyway.

"I always belong." Akihiko quipped and Craig laughed so loudly that Akihiko almost felt offended.

"No," Craig finally managed to say after he had finished laughing. "I mean like, look at all these Marines. We're nothing like them."

Akihiko took one look around and could see what Craig meant. Although there were some Moms with children and even some teenagers around the store, there were many men with short buzzed cut hair and large muscles. They all carried themselves as if they had the upmost respect for themselves and the people around them. Akihiko definitely felt as if they stuck out like sore thumbs.

"We're just a different kind of Marine." Akihiko told Craig and Craig wondered if Akihiko was trying to justify himself to him.

"Guess you're right." Craig answered softly as he tried to stay out of the way of everyone and waited for Axel to be done paying so they could retreat back to the compound where everything just made more sense.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 13, 2016 – 1600 hours**_

Muru's face flushed bright red as Lydia once again dodged one of his attacks. In the past two months the seventeen year old girl was definitely the most improved of the members of the taskforce. Her hand-to-hand combat skills had grown and she had begun to strategize her attacks rather than always playing the defense. Lydia had gone from a clumsy kid just trying to avoid being thrown into walls into a graceful and skilled opponent.

Muru grunted as the force of one of Lydia's fields slammed into his body, forcing him to going flying back. Muru's body hit the floor hard, causing the breath to be sucked from his body. Muru hesitated for a second as he attempted to get his bearings back and his moment of hesitation gave Lydia all the time she needed to trap the older red head in a square made of her force fields. Lydia's eyes glowed purple as she focused on keeping Muru trapped inside the invisible box. Muru blinked once and realized the situation he was in as he attempted to stand but was unable to due to Lydia's tight constricting box.

Time seemed to suddenly speed up as Muru felt adrenaline begin to pump through his body as he grew more and more frustrated. He felt his heart pounding loudly and quickly in his chest in a stead _thud thud thud_ pattern and all his senses seemed to heighten as he felt his body buzz with energy. The roaring sound of his blood pulsing filled his ears as he become focused on Lydia. He slammed his fist into the wall of the force field and it shattered immediately and Muru let out a loud battle cry, which was the only warning anyone had before Muru slammed his body into Lydia's causing the small girl to go flying through the air and land on the floor with the distinct sound of a snap.

And now time slowed to an almost stand-still pace as Muru's adrenaline drained and he realized how _hard_ he had slammed into Lydia and how much of his weight he had put into knocking the much smaller girl down. Muru's breath became uneven as he stared wide-eyed at the girl who didn't move laying in front of him. Lydia's back was to Muru so he was unable to see the girl's face but it didn't matter as the sound of body hitting the floor seemed to pay continuously in his mind. Muru couldn't find it in himself to take a step towards Lydia as he struggled to comprehend what had just happened.

Time returned to normal as Muru was roughly shoved aside by Shaun who ran past the confused twenty year old in favor for kneeling next to Lydia's still form.

"Lydia?" Shaun asked and pulled her into a sitting position as the girl blinked with obvious pain in her eyes. Muru noticed the way she cradled her right wrist to her chest in a protective fashion and suddenly his world came crashing down around him.

He had hurt Lydia. He had hurt Lydia _intentionally._ He was responsible for the pained look in her eyes and the bruising that was already starting to form around her wrist. He was responsible for the snap that continued to play over and over in his head right over the sound of the blood that pulsed heavily in his ears.

Someone shoved Muru roughly as he was forced to stop looking at Lydia and was forced to turn around. "What the hell is your problem?!"

It was Jacob. Jacob was standing there, his posture tense and his tone pissed. Muru searched the ground before finally finding Jacob's eyes and Muru was taken aback by the raw emotion in the older man's eyes. Jacob never showed any sort of emotion remotely similar to this before and yet there was a protective glint glazed over his eyes.

"I-I-I," Muru stuttered and he could not form a full sentence as he couldn't think over the rushing blood and his pounding heart and for one terrible moment Muru is worried he might throw up.

"You what?!" Jacob yelled and again shoved Muru and despite the fact the everything Muru felt was to defend himself he allowed the human to push him again.

Muru stared blankly at the man and Jacob scoffed angrily before pushing past him.

Muru spun and watched as Zephyr and Shaun fussed over Lydia, who, although winded, wasn't still anymore or crying in pain.

"I'm fine." Lydia said with a sigh and both men continued on as if they hadn't heard her. "Muru, seriously, it's okay. I'm fine." Lydia told Muru as she stared at him, trying to figure out what was going through his head. "It was an accident." She told him and for a weird moment Muru felt as if Lydia was justifying Muru's actions to him.

"Come Anderson, we should get you to the infirmary. Your wrist appears to be broken." Zephyr said as he and Shaun both lifted the girl to her feet.

"I'm fine. Really." Lydia assured everyone as she was ushered quickly out of the room by Zephyr and Shaun followed the pair looking slightly like a lost puppy. Jacob followed them after shooting a quick glare at Muru leaving Wolfgang, Lyrik, and Muru standing awkwardly in the middle of the Quarter Deck.

"I didn't-" Muru began as he turned to face his comrades who were left.

"Save it." Wolfgang said while holding up a hand. His voice was eerily calm, which somehow mace Muru feel even worse about the entire situation. Wolfgang calmly left the room, not sparing a second glance towards Muru.

The silence that filled the room after Wolfgang was so deafening the Muru had completely forgotten that Lyrik was in the room until the younger man placed a gentle hand on Muru's shoulder causing the twenty year old to jump.

Lyrik didn't say anything as Muru sorted through the emotions he felt coursing through his body.

"It was an accident." Muru finally said, and his voice was much softer then Lyrik had even heard the loud brash alien be.

"I know." Lyrik said with a nod and strangely Lyrik's acceptance of Muru's excuse did nothing to ease his guilt.

"I didn't mean to hit her that hard." Muru said, his voice robotic and without meaning. He was stating obvious facts but Lyrik didn't feel like he had to point that out to the alien.

"I know." Lyrik nodded instead and Muru couldn't bring himself to even look at Lyrik.

"It all happened so fast." Muru whispered before allowing his knees to buckle and his body to fall to the floor landing in a seated position.

Lyrik lowered himself to the floor to sit next to Muru and he didn't say anything as he waited for Muru to continue.

"One second we were just training and the next she was one the ground and I realized that I had knocked her over." Muru said and he tried to swallow the growing lump in his throat. "I used all my body weight to knock her down. She's half my size. I could have killed her."

"But you didn't." Lyrik pointed out and Muru couldn't figure out if he was trying to be helpful or sardonic.

"But I could have. I've never been so out of control before." Muru pressed, frustration clear in his voice.

"Why did you feel out of control?" Lyrik asked after a moment of silence had passed.

"I don't know." Muru admitted, confusion lacing his voice. "I just felt so frustrated and angry and then suddenly I got this overwhelming urge to _win_." Muru explained, but it sounded confusion even to himself. "It was like Lydia wasn't Lydia anymore." Muru attempted to explain further. "She was just this object standing in the way of my goal."

Lyrik remained silent for so long that Muru finally got the courage to look at him. He looked at the younger alien and noticed that Lyrik wasn't look at him.

"Look, maybe this isn't what you want to hear right now but this is what you need to hear." Lyrik began and Muru braced himself to be yelled at despite Lyrik's calm tone. "Yes, you could have seriously hurt Lydia today. You need to take into consideration your opponents size and physical make-up when you're in combat. If it had been Shaun, you probably wouldn't have fazed him. You're an alien living among humans Muru. They are considerably more fragile than us. You need to start realizing that you can hurt and even kill someone if you don't control your strength. With that being said, Lydia is fine. At worst she probably broke her wrist, and she's a meta, so she'll heal quicker than other humans. She is strong and much more able then anyone gives her credit for around here. Lydia isn't mad at you, and she's the only one who has any right to be mad."

"She should be mad at me." Muru muttered.

"Maybe." Lyrik responded with a shrug. "But she isn't. So why dwell on it?"

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 13, 2016 – 1800 hours**_

Jacob sat hunched over a notebook attempting to finish his assignment that Zephyr had assigned in lieu of finishing combat training for the night. He was writing briefs about different dangerous super criminals and he was tempted to bang his head into the oak desk he sat at because he was so frustrated. Every muscle in his body was agitated in a way that he couldn't describe. His mind raced so fast that he couldn't even focus on reading the case files of the criminals in front of him and instead his thoughts kept drifting back to Lydia and Muru. His pencil broke once again as he pressed too hard down on the piece of paper and Jacob had to use inch of his self-control to not break the pencil.

"That does not look like fun." A female voice commented from behind and Jacob and Jacob turned to see Lydia approaching him.

"I take it you don't have to write these briefs?" Jacob asked even though he already knew the answer.

Lydia waved her right wrist in response which was covered in a black brace. "Guess I should thank Muru cause you look ready to murder the pencil you're holding."

Jacob scoffed and rolled his eyes before turning back around in his chair, unable to even joke about the event that had occurred just an hour previous.

"Okay, definitely hit a nerve." Lydia half-joked as she walked over to Jacob's desk and lifted her body up so she was sitting on the desk, forcing Jacob to pay attention to her.

"I just don't feel like joking about something that's not funny." Jacob responded coolly and Lydia's face dead-panned.

"Please. You're acting like I almost died Jacob." She said with a roll of her eyes and she waved the injured arm in front of his face once more. "It's sprained. It's not even broken."

"You could have." Jacob muttered quietly, completely ignoring the second part of Lydia's sentence.

"I could have what?" Lydia repeated, annoyance clear in her voice.

"You could have died!" Jacob exploded as he pushed himself away from his desk to stand up and pace around the room. "God! Do you not realize how easily Muru could have killed you? If you had landed on your head or hit your spin or something you wouldn't be here to joke about this! This isn't a joke! What we're training for isn't a joke! People _die_ Lydia and you don't seem to realize that. So sorry for not taking the fact that Muru almost killed you lightly!"

The room was completely silent with the exception of Jacob's ragged breathing and Jacob studied Lydia's face for any sign that he had scared the younger girl, but her face was void of emotion.

"You know this is the most emotion I've seen you show in the two months I've known you." Lydia commented, seemingly unfazed by Jacob's fit.

Jacob's body shook as he tried to maintain his composition. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening his eyes again to stare blankly at Lydia, his face neutral despite the whirlwind of emotions he felt buzzing in his body.

"I almost forgot how naïve kids are today." Jacob commented coldly and watched as Lydia's jaw clenched so briefly that he almost missed it.

"Look Jacob, I am honestly so happy to see you display so sort of real emotion after watching you show absolutely no real emotions for last two months. I mean I was seriously worried that maybe you didn't have any real emotions left." Lydia began and Jacob narrowed his eyes at the fact that Lydia seemed to be able to see past his façade that he had put up. "And look you getting all over-protective is sweet. But it's also unnecessary. I can handle myself. I've had my powers since I was born. And when you're born with powers you're pretty much born into a dangerous world."

"You're half the size of the rest of us Lydia." Jacob said with a shake of his head.

"And you're a human! You don't see me handling you with kid-gloves because of it!" Lydia argued back passionately.

"You are a kid!" Jacob yelled before realizing that he was losing his composure again.

"I didn't come here to argue with you about my size, or my age, or my ability." Lydia retorted shortly and pushed herself off the desk to step closer to Jacob. "And frankly I'm a little insulted that you still question my ability to handle myself after all the training we've done together. But still. That's not why I'm here. I need you to go and talk to Muru."

Jacob scoffed at the notion and Lydia rolled her eyes before crossing her arms over her chest.

"Look, Muru is already beating himself up about this. He doesn't need you or anyone else making him feel worse about it." Lydia said with a compassionately glint in her eyes.

"Why don't you go talk to Muru then. I don't have anything to say to him." Jacob suggested.

"I did go and talk to him. But he could look me in the eye without looking all guilty. He knows you're mad at him. I think that hearing that it wasn't his fault from you when help ease some of his guilt." Lydia told him.

"Well you came to the wrong person to ease his guilt. I do blame him." Jacob countered with an odd sort of calm anger to his voice.

"Well you shouldn't. He didn't sprain your wrist, he sprained mine. Which means if I'm not mad at him then no one has the right to be mad at him." Lydia answered easily and Jacob rolled his eyes at her logic.

"Sorry Kid. I'm not going to go try to make Muru feel better after what he did." Jacob told Lydia and pushed past her to go back to his desk and sat down once more in front of the blank notebook.

Lydia sighed and Jacob took that as a sign of defeat. "He looks up to you, you know?" She said quietly and Jacob didn't turn around to face her. "He won't admit it. I think he thinks it would ruin his whole tough guy façade. But I can see it in the way he looks at you like everything you do is great." Lydia continued on and Jacob found himself wishing that the girl would just shut up. "You guys are a lot alike. Neither of you will let yourselves admit that you actually have feelings towards the people here. That you actually care."

"I have to finish these briefs." Jacob told the girl without turning and he heard Lydia sigh once more before he heard the sound of her feet moving towards the door.

"No one's going to disappear on you Jacob." She said softly and Jacob turned just in time to watch the door slam shut behind her.

Jacob's head pounded from the argument he had just had with the girl and he just wanted to punch something he felt so frustrated. Mostly because Lydia had hit the nail on the head when she said he was starting to care for the people on the taskforce despite his well constructed walls. He realized that did feel a surge of protectiveness when he thought of Lydia that he hadn't felt for a while. And he felt a certain amount of amusement when he thought of Shaun and the way that the now twenty year old was discovering Earth for the second time. He felt respect for Lyrik in the way the younger man handled himself and he felt comradery for Wolfgang. And as for Muru, besides the overlying anger he felt towards his roommate, he also felt a great deal of loyalty towards the younger red haired alien.

When had these emotions even began to form? He didn't get attached to people. He hadn't for years now. It wasn't his style. He wasn't the type to actually form bonds with people. To have real emotions towards people seemed impossible to the twenty four year old. Yet, here he was. Obviously he felt something for the people around him or he wouldn't be so angry with Muru and angry with himself right now. Jacob didn't want these relationships. He didn't want to grow close to people. He had learned the hard way that the minute he grew close to someone, they would disappear out of his life, more than likely they would die. This had been the pattern of his entire life.

Jacob shook his head angrily as he forced his mind to return to his work. He could think about his odd attachment later. For now, he had to finish the briefs that sat in front of him.

* * *

 **AN: I literally hate the first part of this chapter. I scrapped the beginning like three times before I finally got it to the point where I felt like I could post it but I still really don't like it. I'm sorry it's so conversational and confusing and all together sucky. I just wanted something more lighthearted before the darker stuff but I obviously failed pretty epically.**

 **I thought about adding a scene where Muru and Jacob talked at the end but I decided that it wasn't really either of their styles. I think that they would kind of come to a silent agreement to move on past the whole thing.**

 **Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Again, sorry about the beginning, it's definitely not my best work. Maybe someday I can write something without it being all dark and gloomy.**

 **Side note: Sorry the outing to the Exchange was not more exciting. I just couldn't figure out how to make anything happen from a normal trip to the story without it being implausible.**

 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 _ **grimbutnotalways**_ **– Thanks so much! Shaun is so much fun to write because it's almost like writing a really big kid. His interactions with other characters is just so easy to write. I'm glad you like learning about the other characters slowly! I'm trying to keep some mystery around the characters because I don't want everything to be other there right away.**

 _ **DeathDealer Inc**_ **– Your reviews push me to try to be a better writer! So thank you so much for that! I'm trying to let there be a little bit of mystery among what exactly the taskforce has been put together for but hopefully by next chapter everything will kind of be cleared up. Obviously this chapter is more of a filler and more focused on character interaction.**

 _ **W. R. Winters**_ **– Thanks for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 _ **NirtotheKidd88**_ **– Thank you! I try to update every Monday and I'm hopefully going to keep that schedule! I'm glad you enjoy the character interactions! That's definitely the best part of writing an SYOC.**

 _ **Julius Terrible**_ **– Thank you for reviewing! I hope you enjoyed the Logistics outing!**

 _ **StarsMagic**_ **– Thank you for reviewing! I love writing the characters as a team and I love writing interactions between all the characters!**

 _ **0B13**_ **– It's okay that you love your character the most! I'm so glad that you like the way I'm writing him! And I also love the rivalry between Craig and Akihiko, it's so much fun to write! I hope you end up liking Axel! Hopefully this chapter will help!**

 _ **ThatGuy22**_ **– Thank you! You are right in saying that romance is brewing! I won't spoil but I think this chapter pretty heavily hints at which couple I'm shipping right now.**

 _ **Odd Phenomenon**_ **– Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far!**

 **Please Review!**

 **Grace**


	4. Interlude One

**CHARACTER LIST:**

 **Bold indicates Metahuman**

 _Italics indicates Human_

 _ **Bold and Italics indicate Alien**_

 **Filo Caesar Sylvain "Kong", 22 –** Chase Lucifer Sparrow

 **Helena Evangelina Fruehan, 21 –** GoldenCrest314

 _ **Grace Dara, 20**_ **–** ThatGuy222

 _ **Christopher Dara, 20**_ **–** ThatGuy222

 **Elise 'Ellie' Taylor Payton, 19 –** OJWawa

Michael Reeds, 23 – Graceful Petals

 *** PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS INTERLUDE TAKES PLACE APPROXIMATELY A YEAR BEFORE THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. ***

* * *

 _ **Quantico, Triangle VA**_

 _ **September 14, 2014 – 1000 hours**_

Elise Payton glanced nervously around the room as she shifted her weight uncomfortably. She kept her back straight as she tried to look confident sitting in a room full of people who were much more qualified and gifted then she was. She sat at the edge of her black swivel chair, her eyes trained on the door, ready to leave at the first indication of this whole thing not working out. Elise wasn't quite sure what she was thinking. In fact, she was pretty sure she wasn't think when she signed up for this experimental government program. All Elise knew was that she needed money and she wanted to get as far away from her home as possible. She had succeeded on both parts, but now as she sat surrounded by other meta-humans, aliens and gifted humans she began to realize that maybe she wasn't meant for this type of program.

Elise wasn't special. She was quite ordinary, despite her meta-human powers. Her ability to control the weather rarely worked the way she wanted it to and when it did it never created a powerful enough response to truly do anything. At best she could make it storm over someone for a minute or two. She had no power, no hidden abilities, and no real control over her abilities. Her powers were connected to her emotions and she tried her best to ignore her emotions for the most part.

When Elise had applied for the program, she had been taking a wild gamble after a particularly bad day at home. She hadn't expected anything to actually come of it. She assumed that like everything else in her life it would simply fade out and Elise would have to pretend like it never happened. Yet, when she got a call telling her that she was selected from a large pool of applicants to be part of an elite new part of the Marines, Elise felt something twist inside her stomach. She suspected that it was hope, but she hadn't felt the emotion in so many years that she couldn't be sure.

It was almost too good to be true. Elise had been patiently waiting for the last two days for someone to pull the rug out from under her. To tell her that it was all just a joke and she was a fool for believing that she could ever amount to anything before sending her back to her house to live with her father for the rest of her miserable existence.

"I take it you all are adjusting well to your new environment?" Lieutenant Colonel White asked from his spot at the front of the large cherry wood table, his fingers folded together in front of him as he leaned onto the table.

Elise nodded mutely along with the other five recruits as she glanced around the room trying to bring herself to pay attention to the scene in front of her. Filo Sylvain, or Kong as he had introduced himself to Elise, leaned back in his chair, his eyes narrowed as if he was completely done with the conversation that had yet to even begin. The dark skinned meta-human had his jaw clenched and if Elise had to guess based on the two days she had known him, she would guess he was trying to bite back a sarcastic remark and was not doing the best job at it. Next to him sat Michael Reeds, the only human that was a part of the taskforce and despite being the oldest of the bunch looked like the youngest. His beach blonde hair and light blue eyes didn't help his youthful appearance. Elise wasn't great at reading people, she wasn't great at anything actually, but everyone in the room could read Michael's relaxed and friendly posture. He read like an open book and Elise could tell he was probably not going to do well in this environment. One look at the guy screamed 'I'm gullible and a nice guy! Please take advantage of me'.

On the other side of Michael, across the table from Elise sat Helena Fruehan. The thin pale girl smiled widely and Elise resisted the urge to shutter. The only vibe she had gotten from Helena after sharing a room with her was that she was crazy to a new level. The girl put up a fairly good façade. Elise was under the impression that she was normal until she was alone with Helena and she started laughing about things that Elise didn't think anyone sane would ever laugh about. Ever since then Elise couldn't help but see crazy every time she looked into Helena's green eyes. Now Helena sat, her grin just a little too wide as she batted her eyelashes innocently and Elise wanted to look around to see if anyone else could see what she saw. Out of fear of drawing too much attention to herself Elise remained still, deciding to just steer clear of the girl as much as possible.

"When do we start to train?" Christopher Dara asked pointedly and Elise turned to look at him as he was sitting next to her. Christopher and Grace Dara were alien twins and Elise found herself both creeped out by the notion and fascinated. She had never been so close to actual aliens before. She knew that they existed, Superman and Martian Manhunter being two of the many examples Elise could think of, but she had yet to actually met any in person. She was slightly disturbed with how human the two twins looked. Christopher was tall with dark brown curly hair and Grace was short with the same dark brown curly hair. Nothing about them shouted 'alien' to Elise. Even having spent time with Grace seeing as she was her other roommate, Elise hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary about the alien girl. If anything, Grace seemed to be more normal than Helena. She hadn't gotten to know Christopher much, or any of the boys for that matter, but from what she had seen he was so human that if Elise had met him on the streets she wouldn't have been able to tell that he was an alien.

"Soon. Be patient son." Lieutenant Colonel White answered calmly and Elise could feel the irritation rolling off of Christopher in waves and from the way Filo's face twisted as if he had smelt something rotten also gave Elise the sense that he wasn't happy with the pace Lieutenant Colonel White was taking. "I thought we could just take this week to socialize and get to know each other."

"I didn't come here to make friends." Filo growled out and Elise shrunk back at the anger in his tone.

"And I didn't assemble this team so you could make friends." Lieutenant Colonel White replied in a condescending way that made Filo's blood boil beneath his skin.

"What did you assemble this team for?" Grace asked, her voice demanding but in a way that made her seem soft still.

"It's come to my attention that there are some threats that the regular military is just not equipped to handle. For that reason, I have been authorized with the ability to put together a team of potential cadets who can handle the threats." White answered bluntly but the patronizing tone still colored his voice.

"Isn't that what the Justice League is for?" Filo asked, his arms crossing over his chest. "Or the Teen Titans?"

"Let's just say that the government doesn't quite feel comfortable leaving our fate in the hands of a bunch of vigilantes who run around in capes."

"I didn't sign up to be a hero." Filo scowled while uncrossing his arms to bring his body closer to the table.

"And no one's asking you to." Lieutenant Colonel White replied, his eyes racking up and down Filo's body intensely as if Filo was a slide under a microscope.

"This is merely a test-run, so to say." He continued on, his eyes leaving Filo as he turned to address the rest of the people sitting at the table. "If this works out, there will be hundreds of taskforces exactly like this one assembled, ensuring our safety as a union."

"When do we get paid?" Christopher asked and Filo's interest perked as he looked to Lieutenant Colonel White for the answer.

"You will be paid every two weeks. All your expenses while here at Quantico will be paid for." White answered, waving his hands dismissively.

"How long until we actually see some action?" Filo probed and Lieutenant Colonel White let out a short bark of laughter.

"As soon as you're ready." He answered before pushing himself up from his seat. "If there are no further questions, I really just called you all in here so you could get to know each other better. If you're going to be working as a team, then you need to have some sort of relationship with one another. I'll be back to check on you in an hour." Lieutenant Colonel White walked quickly to the door, pulling it open and exiting the room rather swiftly.

There was a moment of silence among the cadets before Filo broke it.

"How much do you want to bet that he's watching us somehow right now?" Filo stated with a raise of his eyebrows.

Christopher shook his head, seeming to be done with the whole situation. "I wouldn't put it past him. The old man doesn't seem to trust us."

"Smart." Filo said with a smirk and Christopher returned his devious smile.

"This is a waste of time." Grace griped as she cracked her neck side to side.

Helena giggled as if she had a secret and the others turned to her suspiciously.

"What's so funny?" Filo asked from her side and Helena's eyes widened into an almost doe like state.

"Nothing." She replied innocently and Elise had to physically resist the urge to shutter.

The others didn't seem to notice anything was weird with Helena though and easily turned their attention away from the girl and settled on teasing Michael without his knowledge instead. Elise half-heartedly listened to them, having no desire to call attention to herself and also having nothing to say really.

The whole situation didn't sit well with her. The government was practically using them as Guinee pigs and no one seemed to mind it. Looking around the table, Elise decided that everyone must be pretty desperate for money since no one really seemed to object to the idea of being used as lab rats.

"Elise!" Michael called and Elise blinked, refocusing on the conversation instead of her own thoughts as she looked up to see all eyes on her.

"Ellie." She said softly as she tried to avoid eye contact with the judgement stares of her teammates.

"Huh?" Michael asked dumbly and Elise wanted to hit the older man.

"Call me Ellie." She repeated, her words slow and meticulous, almost as if she was talking to a child.

Michael nodded, his face drooping slightly with disappointment in what Ellie supposed was her tone.

"Ooh, you got a little bit of a fight to you." Grace chastised coyly, her lips spreading into an approving smile.

Ellie rolled her eyes and looked away from Grace, deciding to give her attention to the tabletop instead.

"This is so not going to work." Filo commented under his breath but everyone at the table heard him none the less. The room filled with an echoing silence as no one had a comeback to the comment they all knew was true.

 _ **Quantico, Triangle Virginia**_

 _ **October 21**_ _ **st**_ _ **, 2014 – 1100 hours**_

Filo watched with a sort of detached attention as Grace and Christopher took turns slamming each other into the mat so quickly that Filo could barely keep track of who was winning. Although from the looks of it they were pretty evenly matched.

The group of six were waiting impatiently for Lieutenant Colonel White to arrive. The older man was late, again. It had become a daily occurrence. The team would wake up, have breakfast, arrive in the gym of QMHS (or Quantico Middle High School) and then wait for about an hour for Lieutenant Colonel White to arrive and begin their training. The routine was growing old in Filo's opinion and he didn't see why if White hadn't bothered to show up he should. But no matter his annoyance with how late the man was, Filo along with the other five cadets repeated the routine every day.

Eventually Grace and Christopher would get into a fight over something stupid and then begin to pound on each other until Michael broke them up or Lieutenant Colonel White showed up. It seemed that Michael wasn't in the mood to play peace keeper today though and the two twin aliens were able to continue to smash each other into the ground without any interference.

Beside Filo Helena giggled as her eyes bounced back and forth between the two alien powerhouses almost as if she was watching a tennis match. Filo rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest before turning away from the match to go join Michael and Ellie who were talking quietly in the corner of the gym. Well Michael was talking, it appeared Ellie was just listening and nodding her head in agreement.

"This is bullshit." He said as he approached the two and Michael nodded in agreement while Ellie just looked done with the entire situation.

"Every day this happens. If our training isn't a priority for Lieutenant Colonel White, then what are we doing here?" Michael asked as he leaned up against the stacked colorful mats behind him.

"Wasting our time." Filo answered, his voice dripping with both sarcasm and sincerity at the same time.

The room shook as Grace slammed Christopher into a wall causing everyone's attention to return to the two dueling aliens.

"Aren't you going to stop them?" Filo asked Michael without turning to look at the blonde haired man. Instead his eyes were trained on the two siblings as they sparred without showing signs of fatigue.

Michael snorted and Filo assumed he rolled his eyes as well. "I don't feel like playing babysitter today." He answered.

"They're going to bring the entire gym down." Ellie reasoned but didn't sound too terribly upset with the fact.

"Good. Maybe it will show White to show up on time." Filo said as he shifted his position.

Filo's eyes narrowed as Grace's hands started to glow white and Christopher's hands black, energy pouring from their bodies as they began to get more intense.

"Duck." Filo called simply to his two teammates behind him before diving himself as the black and white energy flew from both Grace's and Christopher's hands. Filo didn't bother to look behind him but instead began to crawl forward despite the wind the pushed him back as he attempted to get close enough to the twins to talk to them.

Somewhere in the back of his mind Filo was aware of Helena giggling despite the energy the was being shot in every direction as Christopher and Grace's energy pushed against one another trying to prevail.

"Knock it off!" He called to the twins but didn't get the reaction he was hoping for as neither put down their hands.

The gym continued to shake due to the energy that was pouring from Christopher and Grace's hands and Filo rolled out of the way as a support beam came crashing down next to him. Filo cursed underneath his breath as he pushed his body up into a standing position. Filo wasn't sure when exactly he had started playing hero but he supposed that he wasn't really playing hero when he was trying to stop the twins from destroying the gym in order to ensure that he survives. Filo reeved himself up as he took a deep breath to calm his nerves. With a yell that sort of resembled a battle cry Filo threw himself forward, running at a pace quicker than most people can see hunched over like an ape. Filo threw his body into Christopher's, effectively knocking the bigger boy over and stopping the flow of energy that was being released from Christopher's body.

Grace seemed to noticed the lack of an opponent and also stopped her attack as she straightened up, cracking her back and looking none worse for the wear.

"Do it again!" Helena called giddily from her spot on the side of the mat and Filo moaned and crashed his head into the floor exasperatedly.

"Well that was dramatic." Ellie quipped as she stood up with Michael. Michael looked shaken but for the most part pretty composed while Ellie looked a little sick.

"You two have got to stop using your powers inside." Michael scolded the twins as he stepped closer to the center of the room.

Christopher mumbled something incoherently as he jumped to his feet before reaching down to help Filo stand as well.

"I apologize." Grace said although her voice held no sincerity.

Filo felt the urge to strangle Grace as his eyes bulged from his skull in a combination of annoyance and actual anger. "You almost killed all of us." He announced, his voice calm despite his anger.

"Please. We would have stopped." Christopher shrugged nonchalantly and now Michael looked ready to murder him.

"You're kidding right?" He asked incredulously. "You already destroyed the Marine Training Gym, the FBI Training Gym, and the PT Arena. That's why we have to train at a high school! Because you two keep destroying all the buildings we go to!"

Grace opened her mouth as if to say something before closing it and for some odd reason all Filo could think was how she looked like a fish.

"Look, I don't know about you two, but I want to get paid." Filo reasoned, his voice tight but his face neutral. "And we can't get paid if you two keep destroying every gym we step into. Think of it this way, the more it cost the keep us, the more they're going to be asking themselves if we're worth it. We have to have more benefit then we cost otherwise we're going to get fired."

Helena giggled once more causing all eyes in the room to swing her way. She smiled widely at them before laughing once more.

"What's so funny Helena?" Michael asked suspiciously as his eyes narrowed.

"Just the fact the Filo thinks that they're going to let us all go once they're done with us." Helena giggled once more, her hand covering her mouth as she tried to stop the giggles.

"Why wouldn't they let us go?" Grace asked, her face scrunched in confusion and a small hint of worry finding its way into her voice.

"Why would they?" Helena retorted, her hands making large gestures as if it was a joke. "We're a bunch of super powered freaks! We can't be trusted! The government needs to be able to control us! They can't do that if they let us go." She laughed and Ellie thought for a moment that she might actually be sick because the words Helena spoke made so much sense despite the fact they came from someone who Ellie thought had half a brain.

"People aren't just going to turn a blind eye if we disappear." Filo scoffed, his body language tense.

"No one would even notice if we disappeared!" Helena laughed, her entire body shaking. "The banished twins from another planet who can't be in the same room with each other for a couple of minutes without destroying it!" She pointed to Christopher and Grace, both who looked down at the mention of being banished. "The weird ape kid who has no family left!" She yelled as she turned her finger towards Filo, who's jaw clenched. "The foster kid who no one even remembers and who doesn't even have any powers!" Her hand flew to point at Michael, who looked unfazed at her assessment. "The abused kid from a family of nine who can barely conjurer a raincloud!" Helena laughed as she pointed at Ellie who shifted her weight uncomfortably. "And the girl with half her sanity who can touch you and kill you!" She laughed even louder as she dropped her hand and everyone knew she was referring to herself.

Silence followed Helena's outburst besides the girl's giggling. The others stood still, glancing around at each other almost as if evaluating if what Helena had said was true.

Helena giggled louder this time. "People don't think I understand what's going on. But I do. I know more about all of you then any of you think I do." She announced proudly and Ellie felt like a rock was sitting in her stomach.

"How?" Christopher asked.

"I pay attention." Helena responded as if it was obvious. "It's so easy to tell by looking at you all."

Michael sighed and allowed his body to sit on the ground, his knees drawing in closer to his chest so he could rest his arms on his kneecaps.

"I was in the foster system from thirteen years." He admitted and everyone's heads snapped towards him. "It's not like everyone makes it sound, I wasn't abused and I wasn't treated badly or anything like that." Michael continued and Ellie slowly sat down next to him, her legs folded underneath her. "The worst part of being part of the foster system is just that no one really remembers you. You're just kind of another nameless faceless kid. There's hundreds of kids just like you and there's nothing about you that's special." Christopher and Grace slowly inched their way closer to Michael and when they were only a couple of feet in front of them they sat down softly forming a shape that somewhat resembled a circle. "That's why I signed up for this. I didn't want to be another faceless guy who no one remembered. I wanted to be a hero who people recognized."

Finally, Helena and Filo also walked closer to the group before completing the small circle that sat of the ground.

"Grace and I are no longer welcomed on our planet." Christopher confessed softly his fingers tracing the design of the tile floor without any real interest. "Two years ago, there was an, uh, accident." Christopher explained and for the first time since Filo had met the boy he saw guilt flooding his eyes.

"We were playing and we accidently hit our older brother with a combination of our energy. He was next in line for the throne so it was considered an act of treason." Grace swallowed thickly, her eye glossed over almost like she was seeing the event happen. "We were just lucky we were part of the Royal Family. Otherwise we would have been put to death rather than just being banished." She finished, her voice soft and it didn't shake with its usual bravo.

Helena's mouth opened and then closed and Filo was pretty sure this was the longest he had seen her go without laughing. "I was experimented on and turned into a walking virus and cure and that's why I'm so crazy." She said, rushing the words out of her mouth. She looked up and around the group with her eyes wide and innocent as if she hadn't just spilt her guts to everyone.

"I'm the youngest of seven." Ellie shrugged, "My Dad doesn't abuse me." She said as she sent a quick glare towards Helena. "He gets frustrated sometimes and sometimes if I'm in his way I get tossed around a bit. But it's not abuse." She insisted and Filo actually found the display a little sad. "It's not frequent enough to be called abuse."

Ellie went silent after that and everyone's eyes turned to Filo, who squirmed underneath their looks.

"What?" He asked aggressively, "Is this confess your deep dark past time?" He scoffed, narrowing his eyes. "This isn't group therapy or some shit." He shook his head and no one said anything in response. Filo looked to his right, studying the floor intensely.

"My Mom died giving birth to me cause some crazy ape bit her. Dad died in a fire. Happy?" He asked, unable to meet anyone's eyes.

The group sat in silence, no one moving and no one saying anything until Lieutenant Colonel White arrived and they all got up and began to train as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred minutes before.

 _ **Quantico, Triangle VA**_

 _ **December 17, 2014 – 1900 hours**_

"Ellie give us some cover." Filo ordered in a harsh whisper over his comm set as he pressed his body up against the brick wall behind him.

The loud crackling of thunder overhead alerted Filo to the fact that Ellie had heard him and he turned to look at Helena who was directly behind him, a ghostly smile covering her face.

"Christopher, Grace, do you have visual on our target?" Filo asked as he tried to peer around the corner of the building without exposing himself too much.

"Yeah. Target is in sight and in range. We can take him out from here if you want." Christopher offered and Filo looked up to see the two twins ready to strike on top of the building across the street from the alley way he and Helena were hidden in.

"We're supposed to bring him in alive." Filo chuckled as he rolled his eyes. "You guys stay where you are and act as back-up. If Helena and I can't handle him and Ellie and Michael can't handle him then you guys come in."

"Boring." Grace yawned but did as she was told and backed up slightly.

"Ellie, Michael, you guys head up through the south side, Helena and I will head towards the north side. Hopefully we'll trap him in the middle and he won't see us coming thanks to Ellie's storm."

"Copy." Michael acknowledged with a nod despite the fact that Filo could not see him.

Filo turned his attention to Helena before giving her a simple nod of his head and then turned back towards the street. "On my count."

"One." Ellie took a deep breath from her position behind Michael as she tried not to be nerves.

"Two." Christopher and Grace shared a knowing look as they began to raise to their full height so they could see the confrontation that was about to occur.

"Three." Filo burst from the alley with Helena hot on his heels as he kept his eyes opened wide until he caught sight of his target.

"Stop!" Filo called out at the dark figure who froze in his track at the sound of Filo's voice.

The figure swung to face Filo and Filo cracked his neck to the right before smirking in the direction of the shaded figure.

"You're going to have to come with us." Filo informed the hooded man, his voice sounding bored with the whole situation.

The man began to back up slowly as if he could out run Filo and Helena. The cock of a gun from behind him stopped his backward movement though.

"I wouldn't." Michael advised as he pointed the muzzle of his gun towards the assailant, who didn't turn around to face Michael and Ellie.

"Look, we have you surrounded on all sides. You might as well give it up." Filo told him with a shake of his head as he took another step forward and Helena followed his example.

The man said nothing but instead pulled out a small rectangular black device that had a single red button on it.

"What are you-" Filo began to question before the man pressed the button causing a loud deafening ringing to explode from the box.

Ellie, Filo, and Michael collapsed to the floor, all gripping their ears desperately as if their hands could keep the alarm out.

"What is that?" Michael yelled and Filo could barely hear him over the pounding pain that was ripping through his head.

"Turn it off!" Ellie yelled from behind Michael, her face twisted together, trying not to show all the pain she was in.

Filo gritted his teeth together before turning to look at Helena, who was standing unaffected above him. The girl was smiling in her absentminded way and Filo resisted the urge to yell at her.

"Helena!" He called, his eyes dark as he caught the girl's attention. "Disarm him!" Helena looked at Filo expectantly and Filo rolled his eyes before adding "Please!" to the end of his sentence.

Helena smiled before skipping forward and reaching out to grab the masked man's hand, causing him to drop the small black box with a yell.

The loud ringing ceased as the box was dropped to the floor and shattered and the three cadets used all their strength just to stay upright.

Filo was the first to regain his strength and forced his body to stand despite the pounding the was still making its presence known in his head.

Filo's face sculpted into a scowl as he aggressively stepped on the black box that was already broken and on the floor.

"That shit hurts." He cursed as Michael slowly was able to stand up and helped Ellie up with him.

Filo turned his attention to the shaded man, this time with a new sort of anger burning in his eyes. "Alright. You're going to tell me where your base is and how to shut down your power disrupter or I'm going to kick your face in." Filo growled out violently and Ellie had no doubt that Filo would do it.

"Remain objective." Michael reminded Filo and Filo swallowed thickly before changing his threat.

"Fine. Tell us what we want to know and I won't have my friend touch you again." Filo amended and Michael wasn't sure if that threat was much better.

The man stayed quiet as he knelt on the floor, still writhing in pain. The storm continued over head as a loud crackle of thunder hit directly overhead, shaking the ground.

"Helena." Filo commanded and the girl giggled as she stepped forward and the man threw himself backwards and away from Helena in a sudden burst of energy.

"No! Wait! I'll tell you. Just call her off!" The man gasped out and Filo smirked before nodding to Helena to stop advancing on the man.

"About a block away from here there's the city library. In its basement is our power disrupter. It doesn't have an off switch though. You can't turn it off, no one can unless you have the remote."

"Where's the remote?" Ellie questioned.

"On our mothership. You'll never got onto it." The man laughed darkly and Filo rolled his eyes before kicking the downed alien man in the head, successfully knocking him out.

"Why'd you do that?" Michael asked incredulously as he stared at the alien's unmoving body.

"He was getting on my nerves." Filo growled out before shrugging. "Besides, he didn't have any more useful information."

"Really?" Ellie deadpanned as she took a step closer to the group. "Do you know where their mothership is? Cause I don't." She remarked sarcastically. "But you know who probably does? The guy you just knocked out."

Filo scoffed before turning on his heel and beginning to walk away. "Psh. We don't need to find the mothership. Our mission is just to shut down the power disrupter. Nothing more, nothing less."

Ellie, Helena, and Michael followed Filo as he walked hastily down the poorly lit street. "And just how exactly do you plan to shut down the power disrupter without the remote?" Michael pressed as they rounded a corner and came face to face with the old red brick library.

"Easy. I get the two people who can destroy literally anything." Filo shrugged with a smirk before touching his ear piece. "Christopher, Grace, I have a job for you. Meet me at the library."

"Copy." Christopher replied, his voice coming in and out due to the poor signal.

"Well he does have a point." Ellie admitted. "If anyone can break that machine its Christopher and Grace. There hasn't been a building in existence that could stand up to them."

"Uh, I don't know if we should exactly be destroying buildings." Michael hesitated prompting Filo to roll his eyes annoyed.

"You got a better idea Reeds?" He asked aggressively and Michael slunk backwards dejectedly. "Didn't think so."

Before anything else could be said, Christopher and Grace came trotting from around the corner, both looking eager for action.

"Great. You guys head down to the basement and destroy the machine down there. I don't care what you do or how you do it but make sure it's completely destroyed." Filo ordered and Christopher and Grace shared a look and a small smile before nodding and heading into the building without hesitation.

"This is not going to end well." Ellie predicted, her voice dead of emotion but her face showing a slight about of concern.

"Stop them!" A voice rang out and Ellie, Helena, Michael, and Filo spun to see about a dozen masked male figures charging towards them. The four cadets widened their stances into fighting positions as their faces grew grim.

"Don't let any of them get inside the library! Christopher and Grace need time to destroy the machine!" Filo directed before swinging his fist in an ape like manner and causing one of the men to fall to the ground.

Ellie allowed grey storm clouds to grew beside her as the wind began to pick up speed at a frightening pace. Ellie stuck her hand into the swirling cloud by her feet and pulled out a small ball of ice and threw it at her assailant, hitting him squarely in the nose. He fell backwards, caught off guard by the dense piece of hail. As another man approached Ellie, Ellie thrusted out her arms causing a large gust of wind to appear from her hands and to knock the man over. Ellie sighed in relief, failing to notice the last man who crept behind her before launching himself onto her back and wrapping his meaty arm around her neck, successfully cutting off her air supply. Ellie gasped and choked for air as she stumbled backwards. She crawled at the arm around her neck but the limb would not move. Ellie's vision grew black around the edges as the man flex his arm once more and she fell to her knees, desperately trying to gain any amount of air she could.

Michael tied up the last of the three men who had been trying to enter the library before turning to notice Ellie collapsing to the ground, unable to breath due to the death grip the man behind her had on her neck. Michael felt the blood boiling under his skin as he raised his gun and took aim rapidly. Without taking the time to second guess himself, Michael's finger tightened on the tiger causing a bullet to ricochet from the muzzle of his gun and into the shoulder of the man standing over Ellie. The man released Ellie with a yell and Ellie fell forward onto the palms of her hands as she tried to find her breath.

Michael skidded against the gravel as he came to her side, resting a concerned hand on her unsteadily rising and falling back. "Are you okay?" He asked.

"Fine." Ellie spat out as she pushed herself onto her knees.

Filo slammed the body of one man into the body of another and listened as the two mangled bodies hit the floor with a satisfying thud. He turned to see Ellie being choked but before he could do anything Michael shot the man in the shoulder causing him to release Ellie. Filo eyed her critically for a second to ensure that she was breathing still before turning his attention to his right to check on Helena who was giggling contently as she dodged the multiple blows that were being aimed towards her head.

Helena's mind whirled with different thoughts as she swiftly and skillfully ducked a kick aimed at her head. She noticed the way that the man who was charging at her favored his left side and run with a sort of limb. She laughed at the sight, thinking how he looked a little like the hunch back of Notre Dame. Her laughter seemed to infuriate the man more as he picked up speed and delivered a well timed kick to her mid section. Helena fell backwards and laughed once more because of how much the kick tickled her. She straightened herself up, grinning madly, and swung her leg out. The man fell to the floor and groaned as Helena came to stand over him. He looked up at her and Helena could see the fear in his eyes and it caused her to smile once more. She blew a breath of hot poisonous air into his face causing the man to twitch slightly before falling limp.

"Helena!" Michael reprimanded her from behind. "You're not supposed to seriously hurt anyone!"

"I only knocked him out." Helena said innocently as she batted her eyelashes. "He'll be fine when he wakes up."

Ellie finally pushed herself off the ground and stood unsteadily on her feet as she tried to blink the stars that were swarming her vision away.

"We get everyone?" She asked, rubbing at her eyes tiredly.

"Yeah, just have to wait for Christopher and Grace now." Filo answered before glancing at the small black watch on his wrist. "And considering they've been down there for about ten minutes, I'd say that they're going to be done any second now."

Filo's prediction came true as the library beside the group of four began to shake, it's foundation cracking as a blinding light came from the underneath the building.

"Maybe we should back away from the building." Michael suggested and the group quickly dispersed and took cover away from the exploding building.

The red brick library imploded in a bright flash of white and black energy causing the entire street to shake vigorously.

Ellie shut her eyes tightly and waited for the shaking to end as she gripped the lamp post she was standing behind tightly. The shaking continued for a moment before finally settling and Ellie opened her eyes as the Earth stopped moving.

Ellie emerged from her hiding spot as did Filo, Helena, and Michael. Christopher and Grace appeared from the rumble where the library used to stand, both covered in grim but looking satisfied with themselves none the less.

"Mission complete." Christopher said with a smile and a nod towards Filo with gave a rare smile in return.

"Mission complete indeed." Another voice interrupted the team's happy moment and they turned to see Lieutenant Colonel White approaching them, looking prouder than Filo had ever seen him.

"Congratulations!" White praised them. "You have passed your final simulation."

Christopher and Grace shared a look and a smirk while Helena giggled enthusiastically. Michael hollered in excitement and Ellie and Filo watched the scene with mild interest although anyone could see the pride and excitement that shone in their eyes.

"So this means we finally get to go on actual mission right?" Grace pressed as she turned away from her brother.

"It does indeed." White nodded and the team cheered in celebration again.

"Did you guys have to destroy the library?" A new voice whined and the six cadets turned to see Gregory Maxton, the FBI Academy's director, approaching them.

"Sorry." Michael apologized sheepishly, but he was the only one to do so.

"Relax Maxton, I'll build you a new library." Lieutenant Colonel White promised as he slapped the smaller man on the back. "Besides, you should be thrilled. We'll never use your fake town for our simulations again."

"I can only imagine what damage you guys are going to do once you get into the real world." Gregory mutter before turning to walk away from Taskforce 0.

"Head back to the barracks and get straight into your racks. You did good work today Marines." Lieutenant Colonel White ordered the cadets with a smile like a proud father.

Christopher, Ellie, Filo, Grace, Helena, and Michael did as they were told and began to walk down the streets of the fake training town that the FBI had created in the middle of Quantico towards their barracks.

"You know, I think that's the first time that he's called us Marines." Michael commented, a hint of a smirk forming in his voice.

"So did we just like graduate boot camp?" Filo asked and he couldn't help but become swept up in pride.

"I think we did." Christopher answered and the others laughed.

"Now we're finally going to see some action!" Grace cheered excitedly, her eyes glistening as she thought about finally facing a real threat.

"It's about time." Filo grumbled and Ellie was inclined to agree with the older boy.

The last four months has felt like the longest four months of Ellie's life. Between the early training days and the constant bickering that she had been forced to endure, it was one of the most annoying things she had ever had to deal with. It seemed like the entire ordeal was never going to end and Ellie often found herself wondering if she should just call it quits. But now, it was all worth it. They were a team. They were going to fight crime together. They were going to save the world. They were going to be somebodies.

* * *

 **AN: Sorry for the longer wait. I got caught up in some personal issues that took my attention away from fanfiction for a while. Anyway, this chapter introduces the anti-heroes, and gives you a little bit of their backstory, which is by no means finished. I think I have a second interlude planned in about three or four more chapters.**

 **I know that this chapter moved very fast and introduced character's backgrounds rapidly, but since I have a shorter time to let you guys get to know that anti-heroes, I kind of have to jam pack a lot of different information into the story in a very short amount of time.**

 **Also, just to clear up confusion. The anti-hero team had their training in Quantico in a much lower budget version than Taskforce Alpha had their training. That's why they're training a High School gyms and why they are using the FBI Academy's fake town (which actually does exist and is in the middle of Quantico) for their simulation.**

 **Finally, I have made some major changes to my plot as a whole and I don't think I'll be able to use the villains that were submitted to me like I originally planned. I'm so sorry, I'm going to still try to work them into the plot but I don't know if I'm going to be able to.**

 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 _ **Guest –**_ **Thank you for reviewing. I definitely have a problem with seeing my own mistakes because my mind knows what I mean even if I mistype, but I'm trying to work on it!**

 _ **NirtoTheKidd88 –**_ **Thank you so much! I'm glad you liked the birthday scene and that it did what it was supposed to do (which was to make you a little bit more surprised with how the chapter ended). It was hard to have Muru kind of lose it a little, but I think in the end it will help him grow. Sorry about the grammar, hopefully it's better in this chapter and don't worry, the whole simulation thing will be touched upon in the next chapter!**

 _ **Okaybay –**_ **I actually would be interested in having a vote! I'm not set on Lydia and Shaun so I'm open for other ideas! And thanks for the suggestion, I've thought about getting a beta reader but the problem is that I don't know a lot of betas who want to read SYOC stories.**

 _ **Mochafactor -**_ **I'm sorry that Wolfgang is out of character! I have reread your application and I will try to fix it next chapter! Thank you for letting me know!**

 _ **ThatGuy222 –**_ **I might have a squad picnic if I can fit it in but the action is about to start in about a chapter so I don't know if I'll be able to fit it in! I'll try though! You will get to see everyone's families soon though.**

 _ **StarsMagic –**_ **I'm excited for the possible romance! And I love writing interactions between Lydia and Jacob, it's probably my favorite thing to write. Thank you for reviewing!**

 _ **Julius Terrible -**_ **Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter!**

 _ **0B13 –**_ **Thank you so much! Your review always makes me smile! I hope you do actually end up liking Axel. I think of him as a sort of older brother to the Logistics Unit (even if he is younger than all of them). I'm glad you like Lydia and Shaun! And Craig and Akihiko are so much fun to write! Their relationship is so easy to write and it's what I like to write whenever I need to lighten up the story! They are definitely best friends even if they have a little rivalry going on. Bromance is the best.**

 _ **Silver Blitz15 –**_ **Thank you so much!**

 _ **DeathDealer Inc –**_ **To answer your question: I try really hard to have character development in my story that would follow what the creator would want but I think that if the character doesn't develop then the entire story is kind of pointless. However, if I'm ever about to do something drastic then I will definitely ask the creator. I have about two more chapters where it's build up and then everything just kind of explodes and there's lots of action and drama! Hopefully that's not too long of a buildup but I still want just a little more team bonding and character development to happen! I will be coming back to the simulation, so don't worry. I really love writing interactions between Jacob and Lydia because their relationship is my favorite one I think. I think in a way they both need each other. Thanks for reviewing!**

 _ **Grimbutnotalways –**_ **Thank you so much! The simulation will be addressed in the next chapter so hopefully that will explain why it was such a sudden shift! I'm so glad that you like Shaun and Lydia together! I think they'd make a cute couple personally. And I'm glad you like the rest of the characters too. And Jacob really does need to give the poor pencil a break!**

 _ **GoldenCrest13 –**_ **Thank you! And here is the anti-hero chapter! I hope you enjoyed it! Don't worry, for now it's really just a one sided crush and I'm not sure what it might develop into. I do think that Lyrik is super brotherly though.**

 _ **W. R. Winters –**_ **Don't worry, I'm not set on Lydia and Shaun. I just think that Shaun would start liking any girl who was nice to him and Lydia is literally the only girl he's seen in a long time so… Lyrik's personality is super complex, so I'm trying to pick it apart slowly but don't worry, his other side will be showcased soon! Thank you for reviewing!**

 **As a final note, I am having a VOTE, as requested by** _ **Guest.**_ **I want to know what romantic pairings you want to see! Between any of the characters, including the antiheroes! The only pairing I will not consider is Grace and Christopher because they are brother and sister. Anyway, tell me in a review what pairings you want to see!**

 **Thanks for all the reviews and support!**

 **\- Grace**


	5. Chapter Four

**CHARACTER LIST:**

 **Bold indicates Metahuman**

 _Italics indicates Human_

 _ **Bold and Italics indicate Alien**_

Ground Combat Element:

 **Lydia Anderson, 17** \- StarsMagic

 **Wolfgang Lee, 20** \- mochafraptor

 _Jacob Lyland, 24_ – DeathDealer Inc

 _ **Shaun Jameson, 19**_ \- iamgoku

 _ **Lyrik Saunders, 19**_ – W. R. Winters

 _ **Murugon 'Muru' Gontalahad, 20**_ – NitroTheKid88

Logistics Combat Element:

 _Dr. Akihiko Minoto, 20_ – 0B13

 _Regina 'Ginny' Pasternak, 18_ – Rosemarie Benson

 **Craig Stevens, 19** – MediaMan18

Command Element:

 _Colonel Donald White, 54_ – Graceful Petals

 _Major Victoria Greenway, 31_ – ThatGuy222

 **Captain Zephyr Yakota, 24** – Silver Blitz15

 **Lance Corporal Axel Turner, 18 –** grimbutnotalways

Taskforce 0:

 **Filo Caesar Sylvain "Kong", 22 –** Chase Lucifer Sparrow

 **Helena Evangelina Fruehan, 21 –** GoldenCrest314

 _ **Grace Dara, 20**_ **–** ThatGuy222

 _ **Christopher Dara, 20**_ **–** ThatGuy222

 **Elise 'Ellie' Taylor Payton, 19 –** OJWawa

 ***This chapter is rated high T or M for mature language.**

* * *

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 18, 2016 – 1100 hours**_

Wolfgang's nose itched. He resisted his natural instinct to raise his hand to scratch his nose as his face twitched just slightly with discomfort. Standing at attention behind Colonel White was proving to be more difficult than Wolfgang had thought it would be. The only thing Wolfgang had been told was that he was to stand at attention until the press conference was over, he shouldn't look directly into any cameras, and that he shouldn't draw any unnecessary attention to himself. Wolfgang imagined that itching his nose while everyone else was standing at attention would be drawing said 'unnecessary attention'.

Wolfgang took as deep of a breath as he could with moving his chest to much as he forced his mind away from the itching sensation in his nose. What he got instead though, was suddenly realizing how tight the collar of his Charlies were. Wolfgang's face remained neutral as he cursed his mind for picking up on all the little things that were making him uncomfortable instead of focusing on what Colonel White was saying.

The press conference had been going on for what felt like forever in Wolfgang's mind. All he could think of was how many other things he could be doing with his Saturday instead of standing here listening to Colonel White drone on. The press conference was nothing like what Wolfgang thought it would be. They were in a small white room on a small wooden stage and Colonel White stood behind a tall oak podium, his posture tense yet his face composed and kind. If Wolfgang wasn't good at reading body language, he wouldn't know that Colonel White was clearly very on edge about this press conference. There were only about thirteen reporters in the room and none of them were pushy like Wolfgang expected them to be. There was a single camera crew filming the press conference and after all the preparation that Colonel White had the taskforce go through he felt a little let down at the small turn out. He was expecting more of what he saw on TV he supposed.

"Any questions?" Colonel White asked as Wolfgang focused back in on what Colonel White was saying.

Hands flew up and Wolfgang's eyes widened just the slightest bit. This was more of what he was expecting.

Colonel White nodded towards a female reporter in the front row who was wearing a bright green blazer and had dark brown hair that framed her face. The woman straightened her posture slightly as words rushed out of her mouth. "Lois Lane from the Daily Planet." She introduced herself and was a little pushy in Wolfgang's opinion. "Why exactly do you feel that this taskforce is needed when we have superheroes like Superman or Batman? And what about the Justice League?"

If Colonel White was fazed by the question he didn't let it show on his face. "We believe that it's high time we, the US Government, had another system of defense against alien invasions and other immediate threats to the security of our nation besides depending on the Justice League."

Lois's male partner's hand shot up immediately at the remark and Wolfgang had a feeling that the large man was just as pushy as his female counterpart. Colonel White pointed towards the man in the blue suit, allowing him to speak. "Clark Kent, Daily Planet. Are you saying that we can't trust the Justice League to protect the Earth?" He asked and Wolfgang felt as if the man took personal offense to the statement.

Colonel White smiled easily and Wolfgang was slightly disturbed at how different the man's demeanor was in public then how it was in private. "Not at all. We just feel better knowing that there is a military division that can also handle these threats that is controlled by the American government and has the American people's best interest at heart." Colonel White answered and as soon as his last word left his lips more hands shot up.

Colonel White pointed to a red-haired woman in the back of the room who was dressed in a pule purple blazer. "Iris West-Allen with Picture News. How soon can we expect to see Taskforce Alpha in action? Will they be fighting crime beside the Justice League?" Iris asked and looked to Colonel White expectantly.

"As soon as Taskforce Alpha has finished their training, you can expect to see them any time they're needed. Of course the Taskforce was out together in order to combat larger threats such as alien invasions but they will be put to use wherever they are most useful to the American people." Colonel White answered and Wolfgang had to resist the urge to shift uncomfortably at the way Colonel White made them sound like weapons.

More hands flew into the air but Colonel White looked down at his right wrist and eyed the digital watch critically.

"Unfortunately that is all the time we have for today." Colonel White said dismissively and the hands fell. "If there are any further questions please seek out one of the Lieutenant Colonels who will remain behind for the next hour and are more than capable of answering any questions you all may have." Colonel White finished before stepping away from the microphone and exiting the small wooden stage to the left.

Wolfgang waited as he listened to Colonel White's footsteps passing by him before he turned sharply to the left and fell into formation with the rest of the taskforce and marched off the stage, playing the part of the perfect solider boy for the cameras.

Wolfgang allowed his chest to deflate as he exited the small white room and took a deep breath causing his lungs to actually expand for the first time in two hours. He cranked his neck from side to side listening to the satisfying crack on both sides.

"Well that was boring." Wolfgang complained to Shaun who was directly next to him.

"I found it very interesting." Shaun responded with a shrug but Wolfgang noticed how the alien had already begun to tug at his tight collar.

"You would." Wolfgang snorted sarcastically and Shaun shrugged his shoulders with a goofy grin covering his face.

Wolfgang took his cover off his head and wiped the sweat that had been building beneath with the back of his right hand.

"I'm just glad it's over. Now we have the rest of the day to relax and do nothing."

"Speak for yourself." Akihiko grumbled from behind Wolfgang and Shaun, his tone light and sarcastic but Wolfgang could still hear the slight bitter undertone to it. "We still have to go to work this afternoon." Akihiko continued gesturing to himself, Ginny, and Craig.

Before Wolfgang could reply with a sarcastic retort Lydia appeared from behind the group pushing her way to the front with a small and cheeky small gracing her lips.

"That's what you guys get for being smart." She said in a sing-song voice as she unbuttoned the first button of her tan shirt.

"Besides, until you guys have to get up and run three miles at the crack of dawn I don't want to hear any of you complaining." Jacob said seriously although after having known the boy for three months they could all tell that he was joking.

"Besides all you guys do is sit behind a desk all day, how hard could that job be?" Wolfgang continued to tease, his right eyebrow raising with the taunt as he attempted to get a rise out of the three members of the Logistics Combat Element.

"Want to come try my job and see?" Craig challenged and Lyrik could tell that the friendly teasing was about to go from friendly to hostile very quickly.

"Sure as long as you go and try to do our jobs." Wolfgang responded, his chest puffing out slightly as if he was trying to make himself appear bigger.

"Alright guys, take it down a notch." Lyrik ordered loudly trying to resist the urge to roll his eyes from annoyance. It had been this way for about a week. Tensions were rising quickly between the two elements and it was apparent to anyone who watched them interact. While Lydia, Ginny, and Lyrik tried for the most part to stay out of the fighting, the other members of Taskforce Alpha were not so diplomatic. The fights usually began between Muru and Akihiko or Axel, although Wolfgang and Craig also seemed to be at each other's throats. Although Shaun and Jacob had yet to actually start a conflict, they were always ready to jump in on the side of Muru and Wolfgang if needed.

Lyrik wasn't sure how much longer he could stand listening to the six boys argue. It was already beginning to wane on his nerves and he was beginning to lose his patience. Although the conflict hadn't gotten to the physical point, Lyrik had no doubt that if something wasn't done soon it would be.

It was a weird sudden switch; it was as if suddenly both elements were just ready to blame one another for any little thing that went wrong. They weren't functioning as a whole unit. It was suddenly Ground Combat versus Logistics Combat and it was obvious that both sides felt like they had to justify themselves to the other.

"Lyrik's right guys." Lydia added as she sighed watching both Craig and Wolfgang stare each other down. "We just had our first very successful press conference. Can't we just get along for one day? Please?"

Craig and Wolfgang both backed off each other, although neither of them looked happy about it.

"Boys." Lydia rolled her eyes as she whispered quietly to Ginny, who giggled quietly.

"Always needing to assert their dominance huh?" Ginny added and Lydia rolled her eyes in agreement.

"And they say girls are hormonal." She joked back and the two burst out laughing drawing the rest of the taskforce's attention.

"What's so funny?" Shaun asked innocently, his eyes wide as he stared confused at Ginny and Lydia.

The two girls shared a look before laughing loudly once more causing the rest of the boys in the room to look at each other in confusion.

Shaun opened his mouth as if to something before Wolfgang put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head gently.

"But I don't understand." Shaun said quietly to Wolfgang, who let out a short bark of a laugh.

"And you never will man. Girls are a strange breed. Their minds work differently than ours." Wolfgang told Shaun and Shaun's face twisted in further confusion.

"But," Shaun stuttered and looked between Wolfgang and Lydia and Ginny.

"It's like they're a completely different species then us." Wolfgang continued and Shaun's eyebrows drew together as he thought hard about what Wolfgang had just said.

"I thought that all people of Earth were humans though." Shaun finally spit out, the confusion in his voice so genuine that Lydia finally took pity on the alien.

"Wolfgang's just messing with you Shaun." Lydia said as she shot Wolfgang a look that clearly said to knock it off.

"But," Shaun began once again before Lydia shook her head and cut him off.

"It's just an expression we use on Earth. Both girls and boys are humans, sometimes it just seems like we're so different that people say girls and boys are different species." Lydia explained calmly and Shaun's face relaxed in understanding.

"You're no fun Lydia." Wolfgang told Lydia teasingly.

"And you're mean Wolfgang." Lydia responded and Wolfgang shrugged as if he didn't care.

 _ **Undisclosed Location, Jump City California**_

 _ **March 18, 2016 – 1200 hours**_

Filo felt his blood boil underneath his skin as he clicked the large red button on the small black remote in order to turn the television off. His breath quickened slightly as he fumed over the press conference he just witnessed. It was almost unbelievable. He couldn't believe that after what happened that the government, that Lieutenant Colonel White (or Colonel White now Filo supposed), would allow for another taskforce to be formed.

"What are you thinking right now Filo?" Ellie's quiet voice broke through Filo's dark thoughts. Filo spun to face Ellie taking in the concerned and slightly fearful features that graced her face.

"Nothing." Filo spat out as he stood from the old couch and began to pace in front of the small television.

"I'll tell you what I'm thinking." Christopher announced and his voice shook as he fought for control of his emotions. "I think we should go pay Taskforce Alpha a little visit."

"It's not their fault Chris." Grace rationalized from his side, her voice dejected as she leaned against her brother's rigid form for support.

"I'm not saying that it is." Chris defended loudly. "But I think they deserve to know that the government doesn't care. That White doesn't care!"

"They wouldn't listen to us." Helena spoke from behind the couch and Ellie jumped slightly as she had forgotten that the other girl was there.

"You don't know that." Christopher argued back.

Helena laughed once more as a smile spread across her face. "Would you believe us?" She asked cutely as she titled her head to the side.

Christopher didn't respond as he glared at the small blonde girl, opening his mouth a couple of times before closing it.

"I can't believe this is happening again." Grace whispered softly but the entire room heard her.

Christopher wrapped his arm around his sister as he attempted to comfort the dark brunette girl. "It's going to be fine Grace."

"This is fucking bullshit. No fucking way they can get away with this again." Filo whispered harshly, his tone outraged, but it was loud enough that everyone in the room heard what he said.

"Filo you need to calm down." Ellie told the older boy as she also pushed herself off the couch and stood in front of him in order to stop his pacing.

"Calm down?" Filo laughed humorlessly as he stared down at Ellie. "Did you watch the same news conference that I did?"

"Yes I did; am I'm upset by it too but-" Ellie began calmly but was quickly cut off by Filo.

"Are you?" He yelled, his face growing red as anger pulsed through his veins. "Because you sure don't seem very bothered by this!"

Ellie's face grew hot with anger as she fought the tears that were beginning to pool in her eyes. "Of course I am!" She yelled back, her voice louder than Filo had heard her be in almost a year. "This is so fucking messed up but you're not helping by not controlling your anger!"

Filo took a deep breath as guilt over the tears building in Ellie's eyes began to flood over him.

"I'm sorry." He grumbled quietly and Ellie blinked back tears, not letting any of them escape as she cleared her throat.

"It's fine." She mumbled before breaking eye contact with Filo and retreating back to the couch.

"Did you see that one girl? She's probably not even eighteen yet." Grace sighed as her eyes grew distant thinking about the small brunette girl that had easily captured her attention. "How is it even legal to recruit her? How is it legal to even have another taskforce?"

Helena laughed airily from behind them. "Because we're nothing but weapons to them _remember_?" She taunted, her voice light but her words dark. "We don't matter." She reminded the four former Marines sitting in front of her as she enunciated every word slowly. "We never mattered."

"Think they know about us?" Chris asked, his usual booming voice much softer than it normally was.

Filo scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Why would they bother to tell them about us? Clearly we've just been erased from history. It's like we never existed." He theorized, his voice calm dispute how angry he felt with the whole situation.

"Isn't there something we could do?" Christopher asked as he turned his attention to Filo, who had always been their leader in a way.

"Why should we help them? They're idiots for joining the taskforce in the first place." Filo responded, turning his back on the other in the room.

"That's not fair Filo. They have no idea what happened to us and we have no idea how bad their lives were before they joined the Taskforce." Ellie scolded Filo. "I would have down anything to get away from my father. Taskforce 0 was my safe haven, just like I know it was yours, and the twins, and Helena's."

"So?" Filo asked aggressively. "Look at where Taskforce 0 got us now! We're squatting in some old abandoned house like a bunch of petty thieves. Everything we own right now we had to steal. We have nothing!"

"We have each other!" Ellie argued back and Filo fell silent as he didn't know how to respond to that.

"So," Christopher asked after a moment of silence had passed between the group, "What do we do now?"

"We find Taskforce Alpha and we warn them." Filo responded and his voice shook with confidence as he straightened his spine and turned to face his four friends who had quickly become his family.

"How?" Ellie asked as her eyes narrowed.

"We're a good hundred miles away from Camp Pendleton." Christopher reminded the group.

"Besides, in case you guys forgot we went AWOL and there are warrants out for all of our arrests. How could we step foot on a military base without being caught and sent to jail?" Grace asked.

"We're Taskforce 0. We'll find a way." Filo responded with a familiar glint in his eyes that Ellie knew meant he was serious.

Helena giggled loudly before coming from behind the couch to sit next to Ellie. "Oh goody!" She cheered, her hands clasping together in excitement. "An adventure! We haven't had one of those in a while!"

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 27, 2016 – 1400 hours**_

"Simulation fail. Simulation fail. Simulation fail." The same robotic voice rang out across the white room and in the ears of the entire ground combat element squad.

"Ugh!" Wolfgang sounded as he allowed his head to hit the floor. Wolfgang shut his eyes tightly, hoping to block out the blinding white lights but with no such luck.

"That's the third fail this week." Lydia told the group, her voice void of its usual optimistic nature. "I feel like that's a record."

No one responded to the girl as they all continued to lie in perfect stillness on the black mats hoping that maybe Colonel White and Captain Yakota would just skip lecturing them as they had already received the lecture two other times in this week alone.

Unfortunately, luck was not on their side as Colonel White and Captain Yakota came strolling in through the automatic doors followed by the Logistics Combat Element.

Lydia, Shaun, and Lyrik pushed themselves up into a seated position while Jacob, Muru, and Wolfgang didn't even bother as they knew the lecture they were about to receive was one they had gotten many times before.

Colonel White opened and closed his mouth several times before he finally seemed to decided he didn't have anything to say and instead spun on his heel and exited the room.

"Well that's a new reaction." Lyrik commented as he blinked dully before glancing to Captain Yakota's face which clearly conveyed that he wasn't happy with the taskforce.

Captain Yakota sighed before pulling out his clipboard and casting his eyes down to the board. "Anderson, with the limited mobility of your right wrist you are not as much of an asset as you usually are. You need to find new ways to use your powers without the use of your right wrist." He read dully and Lydia nodded once before beginning to fidget with the black brace around her wrist. "Gotalahad, you have been distracted for the last couple of simulations. You need to keep your focus on the task at hand and not on your teammates." Yakota continued on, sending a small glance at Lydia as he talked and Muru knew what Yakota was trying to hint at. "Jameson, you are still having trouble following orders. You seem to think you know best. You do not." Yakota told Shaun harshly and Shaun's face fell quickly as he wasn't use to Yakota being so blunt and hostile with his critiques. "Lee," Yakota began and then paused just long enough for Wolfgang to raise an eyebrow. "Good work today. You were the only one truly on task." Wolfgang smirked, a weird sensation of pride filling his chest at the praise. "Lyland, you made calls that were not yours to make. You need to listen to Lance Corporal Turner as he is the commanding officer of this Taskforce." Jacob resisted the urge to roll his eyes and made sure not to look Axel's way where he was sure the younger boy was smirking. "Saunders, you are not being aggressive enough with your attacks. You cannot continue to hold back." Yakota told Lyrik who couldn't bring himself to look at Captain Yakota in the eyes.

"Needless to say this is getting to a ridiculous point." Captain Yakota continued on, his tone bored and annoyed and his stance rigid. "There is only so much I can do for you all. As they say, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink the water."

Captain Yakota turned his back to the Taskforce and walked swiftly out of the room, causing a silence to fall over everyone else.

"Wow," Akihiko finally said breaking the silence and Lyrik found himself praying that the boy didn't say anything stupid that would start yet another fight. "I guess you guys really have to shape up." Akihiko finished and Lyrik actually groaned out loud as he knew the fight that was about to occur.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Muru asked, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he pushed himself off the ground and puffed out his chest to make himself appear more menacing, hoping to get the smaller man to back down.

Of course Akihiko didn't. "I'm just saying, I heard a lot of critiques for Ground Combat but none for Logistics. I wonder why that is."

Shaun quickly stood up, his face uncharacteristically red. "I would watch what you are implying if I was you." Shaun warned, the threat clear.

"Or what? Akihiko's just stating facts." Craig jumped in, ready to defend his friend and his Element.

"Or I'll make you eat your words Stevens." Muru growled, his fists clenched.

"Guys." Lydia groaned as she also stood up sensing the on-coming fight.

"No Lydia, I want to hear just how great Logistics Element is." Wolfgang told Lydia sarcastically as he stood and held his hand out to stop the girl from putting herself between the two fighting sides.

"Wolfgang, come on." Lydia groaned as she tried to push past Wolfgang's extended arm but the older boy wouldn't budge.

"Come on Akihiko, I'm waiting." Wolfgang prompted, completely ignoring Lydia as he kept his eyes trained on Akihiko and Craig.

"Okay." Akihiko responded, rising to Wolfgang's challenge. "Let see shall we, who's fault is it that we've failed the past three simulations? Hm that's right. It's the Ground Combat Element's fault. If you guys would just do what we tell you then maybe we're actually pass a simulation." Akihiko sneered as he took a step closer to Wolfgang.

"See I'm trying to remember how well that worked out for us the first time and, oh yeah now I remember, if it wasn't a simulation we would have been blown up." Wolfgang retorted sarcastically, his words heated despite his casual tone.

Axel snorted and drew all eyes to him as he crossed his arms defensively over his chest. "If I recall correctly I did warn you that you were walking into a trap."

"Yeah two seconds before we walked into it." Jacob responded his voice quiet but everyone heard his words.

"You think you can do my job better Lyland?" Axel asked aggressively, his eye twitching as his jaw clenched tightly together and his hands balled into fists.

Jacob shrugged non-verbally, his eyes taunting Axel.

"There are choices that have to be made in the field that people who sit behind a computer all day wouldn't understand." Muru commented hostilely as he stared down Axel, Craig, and Akihiko.

Craig snorted, his eyes glinting with a spark of anger. "What would you know about being in the field? You've never actually been in the field."

"Neither have you!" Muru argued back taking a step forward and causing Craig to also step forward.

"You guys need to walk away from each other right now!" Lydia ordered the two boys but Wolfgang remained positioned in front of the girl not letting her physically intervene.

"Lydia's right guys. Step away before this goes any further." Lyrik added as he finally stood begrudgingly ready to mediate if necessary.

"You want to let these guys get away with blaming us for failing the simulation when it's their fault?" Muru asked as he spun on Lyrik causing the younger boy to take a step back from the hostile alien.

"Muru you need to calm down." Lyrik said as he ignored Muru's question completely.

"What are you on their side?" Muru continued to question as he took a step towards Lyrik once again and Lydia felt her frustration at the situation begin to build as she resisted the urge to scream.

"There are no sides! We're all on the same team!" Lyrik said as he stood firm against Muru, refusing to let the larger boy intimidate him.

"See, they can't even cooperate with each other." Akihiko smugly commented to Craig who laughed causing everyone's focus to shift back to them.

"That's it!" Muru yelled and suddenly he was flying at Craig and Akihiko, his fist raised.

Muru never reached his destination and instead ran into an invisible force causing him along with everyone else to shift their focus to Lydia who had her left hand extended and look more annoyed then Muru had ever seen the girl.

"You guys are being ridiculous!" She cried, irritation rolling off her body in waves as she maintained the force field that separated the two elements. "I know that you're all upset that we keep failing the simulations. I'm frustrated by it too. But fighting with each other isn't going to help anything. We're not working cohesively as a group which is why we can't get anything done! You guys have got to stop blaming each other for your own mistakes and instead think about how you can do better! I am so sick of baby-sitting you guys all the time!"

The room fell silent after Lydia's rant and while no words were exchanged it was clear that the anger in the room was slowly diffusing.

"Come on Logistics, we have to get back to the lab." Axel finally said as he pulled Akihiko and Craig by the hooks of their elbows out of the room and Ginny followed behind quietly.

The Ground Combat Element remained silent for a moment as the tension in the room remained high and Lydia finally dropped her hand and therefore dropped her force field as well.

"Lydia, I-" Shaun began but Lydia shook her head, closing her eyes tightly effectively cutting him off.

"I really just don't have the energy right now Shaun." She said tiredly before leaving the room herself, her posture tense.

"I'm sorry Lyrik." Muru apologized quietly and Lyrik gave the alien a soft smile.

"It's fine Muru." He sighed and couldn't help but wonder if he should really be letting Muru off the hook so easily.

"No it's not. I let my anger get the best of me. And it wasn't fair to you." Muru pressed, his words sincere.

Lyrik looked at the alien slightly shocked with his statement. "Just keep working on it Muru. You'll get there." He encouraged the boy and Muru nodded, his face impossible to read.

"Should I go after Lydia?" Shaun asked as he continued to stare at the door Lydia had just left through.

"Give her some time to cool down." Jacob suggested as he walked up to Shaun. "I think she's just as frustrated with failing the simulations as we are."

Shaun nodded but he didn't look very happy not following the girl out.

"I still think that Lydia should have let Muru hit Akihiko." Wolfgang commented coolly, his arms crossed over his chest.

"What would that have solved?" Lyrik asked Wolfgang, his tone tired.

"Maybe Akihiko would stop mouthing off." Wolfgang answered with a nonchalant shrug. "Sometimes violence helps end conflict."

"Things can be solved without violence. We're all adults here." Lyrik argued back dispassionately as he knew he was fighting a losing battle.

"How's solving this dispute with words between ground element and logistics element going?" Wolfgang asked calmly and Lyrik froze for a moment, unable to think of a viable retort. Wolfgang smirked at Lyrik's lack of response before turning and leaving the room.

"He's not wrong." Jacob commented as well and Lyrik rolled his eyes.

"So you think that we should just let Muru and Akihiko go at each other?" Lyrik asked seriously and Jacob shrugged.

"I think that unless you come up with another solution, that's what's going to happen anyway."

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 30, 2016 – 2200 hours**_

Lydia took a deep breath of the cool night air as she tried to calm her nerves. She leaned over the small ledge and looked down to the ground beneath her that was at least fifteen stories below her. She casted her eyes to the faint skyline of Oceanside instead as she shivered slightly. It was March in southern California. She had no idea why it would be cold, even if it was at night.

"Hey." A soft voice greeted her from behind and Lydia's nerves skyrocketed again as she spun to face Lyrik.

"You scared me." She told him in lieu of a greeting.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." Lyrik apologized easily as he pulled himself all the way up the latter to come to Lydia's right.

"It's fine." Lydia responded with a sigh as she slid down the concrete wall behind her.

"So is there a reason you're up on the roof?" Lyrik asked after a moment before deciding to join the girl on the floor.

Lydia shrugged, her face holding a deep frown as opposed to her normal smile. "I don't know." She breathed after a beat. "I just come up here to think sometimes." She explained uneasily as if she was relieving a prized secret.

Lyrik nodded, his face neutral as always.

"Well what are you thinking of now?" He asked as he kept his eyes trained on her.

Lydia shrugged once more as she avoided Lyrik's glaze. "I was just tired of playing peacekeeper I guess. I'm not going to interfere with all these fights anymore. If they want to tear each other apart then I'm just going to let them do it. I just don't want to be there when it happens."

Lyrik nodded in understanding as he scooted closer to Lydia in order to close the gap between them.

"How do you do it?" Lydia finally asked after a couple of seconds of simply staring off into space.

"Do what?" Lyrik asked confused.

"How do you stay so patient and calm all the time? It's like nothing anyone says bugs you. You don't get mad." Lydia concluded and Lyrik felt like there was a hint of jealousy underlining her tone.

Lyrik laughed loudly causing Lydia to finally look at the boy in surprise. "I get mad trust me." He responded and Lydia gave him a look that clearly said she didn't believe that. "I do!" He insisted and laughed once more almost like he was laughing at himself.

"Really?" Lydia asked as she gripped her knees tighter into her chest. Her tone was full of disbelief at the older boys claim.

"Really." Lyrik confirmed with a nod and Lydia sunk into her posture a little more.

"Why do you never show that you're mad then?" Lydia asked, her words not accusing but just honestly curious.

Lyrik shrugged thoughtfully and licked his lips. "I guess I just figure that getting mad at people, letting all the aggression that I hold in out really won't do anything for the situation. It won't do anything for me, or for others." Lyrik explained, his voice deep with thought. "I mean, I know that my anger isn't going to solve anything and in fact it might just make the situation worst. Besides," Lyrik paused slightly, "you never really know what's going on in people's heads. You don't know why they do things. Why they say thing. You don't know their fears, or their doubts. You don't know their insecurities; the things they hate about themselves." Lyrik stumbled over the word hate subtly and if Lydia hadn't been hanging on to his every word she might have missed the slightly stumble.

Lyrik cleared his thought loudly, effectively stopping any questions Lydia could have asked. "Without all that information, how can you really be mad at anyone ever?" Lyrik asked honestly as he turned his head to look at Lydia once more.

"I've never thought of that before." Lydia admitted, her eyebrows furring in thought.

"That's why Wolfgang, Craig and Akihiko are constantly on each other. They're all so afraid of their own shortcomings that they feel like they have to point out each other's." Lyrik sighed. "Muru and Shaun feel like they have to protect everyone around them, Jacob likes to put up this façade like he doesn't care because he can't stand the idea of actually getting close to anyone. Axel feels like an outsider and like he has something to prove." Lyrik continued to analysis and Lydia gave him a small smile. "Ginny's afraid of actually being noticed. You feel like you have to keep everyone together or things are just going to fall apart and it's going to be your fault."

"What about you?" Lydia asked, her voice soft.

"What about me?" Lyrik deflected as he turned his head away from the girl in order to watch the latter he had just climbed up.

"What are you afraid of Lyrik?"

Lyrik paused, his jaw hanging opening before he snapped it shut. "I," He started before pausing once more and Lydia patiently waited for what he had to say. "I guess I'm afraid of people actually seeing the real me." He finally admitted and Lydia waited for him to elaborate more but he didn't.

"What do you mean see the real you? You seem like a pretty genuine person to me Lyrik." Lydia told Lyrik as her face melted into concern.

"Yeah well, some people have really good masks." Lyrik told the younger girl seriously and Lydia continued to grow more confused.

"What do you mean Lyrik?" She pressed again and Lyrik could feel the pounding of his heart in his chest.

"Can I show you something?" Lyrik asked suddenly, rushing the words out of his mouth before he could change his mind.

"Sure." Lydia stuttered confused but her body leaning towards Lyrik as if she just wanted to convey how she supported him.

"And you promise not to think less of me?" Lyrik pressed.

"Of course!" Lydia confirmed without hesitation. "Lyrik there's very little you could ever do to make me think less of you."

"I need you to promise me Lydia." Lyrik said as he ignored the second part of Lydia's sentence.

"I promise." Lydia promised quietly, her eyes filling with confusion.

Lyrik sighed, as if he was trying to relinquish any remaining nerves. He stood, his movement sudden and quick and Lydia leaned back slightly in surprise. Lyrik closed his eyes, his breathing still quickened slightly. Lyrik tried not to think about whether what he was about to do was smart. He tried not to think about how Lydia would react. He had only known the girl for three months but he trusted her. He trusted her and he knew deep down underneath his fear and insecurity that Lydia wouldn't judge him for his natural appearance. Lyrik opened his eyes and as he opened his eyes his normal human appearance quickly morphed as his skin became white and scaly and his eyes narrowed into slits. The scar that he had hide for so long made its presence known over his right eye.

Lyrik spun to face Lydia, his face cold and unreadable. "This is what I really look like." He announced, his voice only shaking slightly.

Lydia, to her credit, only looked mildly surprised and not the least bit disgusted like Lyrik expected her to be.

"Can you please say something?" Lyrik asked after the silence had continued too long for him.

"Lyrik I-" Lydia began but stopped herself as she titled her head slightly to the side as if she was trying to figure out exactly what to say to Lyrik.

Lyrik's fists clenched together as he began to grow angry at himself for trusting Lydia. He should have known that now all she was going to be able to see him as was a monster.

"Lyrik there's nothing to say. I don't care want you look like. And I'm pretty sure everyone else feels the same way." Lydia told Lyrik causing Lyrik's fist to unclench.

"You're not disgusted?" Lyrik asked confused as he brought his eyes up to meet Lydia's eyes.

"Of course not!" Lydia cried, sounding slightly offended that Lyrik would even suggest the thought. Lydia pushed herself up off the ground quickly coming to stand right in front of Lyrik. "Why would I be disgusted?"

"Because I-" Lyrik began but he couldn't quite piece together the words to say what he was thinking.

"Because you don't look like me?" Lydia asked, her voice light. "Lyrik, if I didn't like anyone who didn't look like me than I wouldn't really like anyone." She joked but Lyrik didn't laugh.

"Because I don't look human!" Lyrik exploded and Lydia took a step back instinctually.

"Well," She said as she swallowed the lump in her throat, "that would make sense considering you're an alien."

Lyrik didn't say anything and instead decided to stare at the ground.

"Lyrik." Lydia said softly and forced herself to take a step closer to the angst ridden boy. "It's doesn't matter what you look like on the outside. It matters who you are on the inside." She told him softly as she continued to stare at him gently. "Besides, for all you know you could be considered beautiful on your planet and I could be considered a monster. Beauty is subjective."

"Can you not tell the others about this?" Lyrik asked as he considered Lydia's words and slowly morphed back into his human form.

Lydia nodded, her eyes sad as she watched Lyrik retreat back into his shell. "I won't tell anyone." She promised.

Lyrik nodded, feeling much more in control of his body as took a deep calming breath.

"Should we go see if the others have completely demolished each other by now?" Lyrik asked and Lydia saw the deflective nature of his actions but decided to let it go.

"I suppose we should." She nodded with a sigh.

 _ **Camp Pendleton, Oceanside CA**_

 _ **March 30, 2016 – 2300 hours**_

Jacob punched the swinging black punching bag using all of his body weight to push his swung forward. He watched with satisfaction as the bag swung rapidly from side to side before delivering another swift and direct punch to the bag once again. He continued this pattern vigorously despite the fact he could feel sweat dripping down his face and back.

Jacob couldn't quite explain it, and he wondered if in fact anyone could really explain it, but the amount of frustration he could feel building in his body was almost overwhelming. He wasn't sure how much more he could take of this whole team thing. It wasn't his style. Working with other people, becoming close to other people. Jacob had well-built walls that he had previously thought impenetrable. Now he discovered that he wasn't as well-guarded as he used to be. He found that he actually cared about the people around him. He had a vast amount of respect for Lyrik and Lydia. He found Wolfgang and Shaun amusing and often found his mouth turning into a smile when he was around the alien and metahuman. He had a bit more of a complicated relationship with Muru as he didn't completely trust the boy, but he also felt a little protective of alien in a strange way that he couldn't really describe.

It made sense, as much as Jacob didn't want to admit it. After all, you can't spend all day every day with a group of people for three months and not become attached. This didn't make the fact any less unsettling but he was glad he could find the logic in it.

Jacob knew deep down that his strange new attachment to the Ground Combat Element was the real reason he continued to give Logistics a hard time. While he did find that Akihiko and Craig were usually asking for trouble and Axel had some sort of chip on his shoulder, he knew the real reason he couldn't let himself rise above the drama was because he didn't want to get attached to anymore people. He was already attached to five people and Jacob knew better than most that being attached is dangerous. Being attached is how you get hurt.

A door slammed from behind Jacob causing the twenty-four-year-old to spin instinctively. Jacob's eyes narrowed as he watched Axel enter the small gym space. He kept his breathing in the same rhythmic pattern in order to keep himself calm despite is natural instinct to approach the boy.

Axel kept his eyes trained on Jacob as he walked to the treadmills. He had earphones stuffed into his ears and his music was turned up as high as he could put it, yet he could still feel the eerie silence that filled the room. Axel stepped up onto the treadmill and finally teared his eyes from Jacob in order to turn on the machine.

Axel kept his eyes straight forward despite his natural instinct to stare at Jacob. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he could feel Jacob's eyes boring into him. He spun suddenly, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the older boy.

"You got something to say Lyland?" Axel growled out and Jacob shrugged passively as he turned back to his punching bag.

Axel rolled his eyes but turned away from Jacob and started to jog at a medium pace. He tried his best to ignore the presence of the twenty-four year old but it was proving to be harder than he thought. Jacob had the type of presence that just completely took over the room. No matter how hard Axel tried to think of something else, anything else, it was as if Jacob was breathing down his neck instead of punching a bag thirty feet away from him. Everything else just seemed to melt away and the only thing Axel was aware of was Jacob's breathing and the sound of the man's fist hitting the black bag harshly.

The entire feud between the two elements was beginning to feel ridiculous even to Axel, who was naturally a little bit more prone to fighting. To be fair, Axel knew the fighting stemmed more from Akihiko, Craig, Muru, and Wolfgang than it did from Shaun, Jacob, or himself, but it didn't change the fact that it caused everyone to be tense around each other. Even Lyrik, Ginny and Lydia often found reasons not to be alone in a room with just members of the Logistics Element or in Ginny's case the Ground Combat Element. Axel knew that the feud was affecting their work and was also the reason they seemed to be unable to pass any simulation despite the fact that their training was going well.

The sound of the door slamming open again distracted Axel from his thoughts as well as almost caused him to go flying off the treadmill as he attempted to turn around and look at who had entered.

Axel's heart dropped as he watched Craig enter the gym as he knew immediately that there was no way Craig could interact with Jacob, or even be in the same room as Jacob for the matter, without making some sort of snide comment. Although Akihiko was more of the leader in regards to the attack against Ground Combat Element, Craig could also make some pretty thoughtless comments as well.

Axel turned his eyes to Jacob, who was staring at Craig intensely as his eyes narrowed. Axel silently hoped that the two would just go their own separate ways and Axel wouldn't have to deal with any more fights today.

Craig's faces twisted into a smirk as he slowed his pace and approached Jacob.

"Sup Lyland?" Craig asked, his tone light but Axel could hear the challenge beneath the words.

Jacob didn't answer the younger man but instead reached down to gave his white towel, all while never taking his eyes off Craig.

Craig rolled his eyes but otherwise said nothing as he stepped further into the gym. The tension was so thick in the room that Axel was sure if even a word was uttered, a huge fight would erupt. Axel debated just leaving the gym in favor of just retreating to his room and sleeping but he felt strangely obligated to stay in case a fight did occur.

The three remained silent but the room was heavy with tension and Axel couldn't help but think that he had never heard silence so loud before.

The silence was broken by the sound of the metal door once again opening and closing and Axel turned around to see Akihiko walk into the small gym space. Axel resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Akihiko and Craig together were not exactly the peacemaking type. In fact, they were quite the opposite. The two seemed to encourage each other to antagonize member of the Ground Combat Element and Axel really did not want to deal with this right now. Out of all the nights Axel had decided to run in the gym instead of on the track why did it have to be tonight that Craig, Akihiko and Jacob all decided to work out at the same time.

Jacob shot the two geniuses a warning glare before turning back to his black punching bag. Akihiko and Craig shared a looking and nod before beginning to advance on Jacob.

Axel sighed before turning off the treadmill and he held his breathe as he waited for a fight to break out. This was going to be a long night.

* * *

 **AN: Next chapter will pick up immediately where this chapter left off. I wanted to finish this scene but I figured I had left you waiting for too long so instead I'm just going to leave you with a cliff-hanger of sorts. I am sorry for my two-month absence. I just started college and if you haven't done that yet college pretty much dominates any time you have. I am going to try to update every two weeks but no promises. Just know I haven't abandoned this story! I am still very excited! Anyway, this is the last build up chapter. Next chapter the action begins in full force, so be ready for drama. Also, taskforce 0 made another appearance! I'm going to try to give them a little cameo every chapter until the next interlude which will continue/finish their backstory (which will come in probably a chapter or two). Anyway, currently most people want Lydia with Lyrik so I've given them a little thing alone, not that it has to be taken as romantic. There's a lot of little extra scenes that I meant to add to this chapter before jumping into the action next chapter but I decided instead of doing that, I'm going to save those extra scenes and maybe make a collection of one-shots as a separate but companion story because they really just interrupt the flow of this chapter if I was to add them into this. Also, sorry if Craig and Akihiko seemed a little too much like jerks, it was supposed to come off as they don't know when to stop joking around and that it was equally both sides faults. Anyway, thanks for sticking with me! I hope you enjoy this chapter and hopefully you'll see another update in two weeks?**

 **REVIEW RESPONSES:**

 _ **Guest –**_ **Thanks for the advice! I know I miss a lot of my grammar and spelling mistakes and I think it's just because in my head I know what I'm trying to say.**

 _ **W.R. Winters**_ **– I'm glad you enjoyed the anti-heroes! They're a lot of fun to write because they get to have a little more fun than Taskforce Alpha. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 _ **Guest (DeathDealerInc)**_ **– I'm guessing that this is** _ **DeathDealerInc**_ **based on the review style, but if I'm incorrect please correct me! I do hope to include Hana in this story in some form because she's a very dynamic character, so definitely keep looking for her! And I agree with Jacob and Lydia's relationship being purely platonic. I think that they have a lot in common (which will come to light in the next couple of chapters).**

 _ **GoldenCrest134 –**_ **Yay! I'm glad you liked the way I wrote Helena. She is so much fun to write and she's just such an awesome character so I hope I can do her justice. And I kind of agree that Grace and Mur would make the most interesting couple ever.**

 _ **0B13 –**_ **I do plan for Taskforce Alpha to meet Taskforce 0 and when they do drama will surely follow! Sorry that this was such a long break, I had serious writers block.**

 _ **Mochafactor –**_ **Helena will be coming back along with other members of taskforce 0, and I'm so glad you liked her!**

 _ **Rosemarie Benson –**_ **I hope that in a couple of chapter it will clear up how the anti-heroes relate to the main plot of this story! Thank you for reviewing!**

 _ **C.L. Sparrowhawk –**_ **Thank you so much! Your review was so nice, it really made my day! I think Filo is defiantly the ringleader of the antiheroes and he is so much fun to write because he's such a dynamic character and his interactions with everyone us just always makes me laugh a little.**

 _ **StarsMagic –**_ **Thank you! Ellie is a lot like Raven in my opinion so I'm glad you drew the parallels.**

 _ **NitrotheKidd88**_ **– Thank you so much! My hope for this interlude was to show the difference between the two groups so I'm glad that you caught all the differences! I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

 _ **ThatGuy222 –**_ **I'm glad you liked Grace and Christopher, their relationship is really interesting to me so I really like writing their interactions.**

 _ **OJWawa –**_ **I think I might ship Ellie and Filo low-key honestly. I think they keep each other in line and support each other in a way that's kind of different from everyone else.**

 _ **The Men In Black –**_ **Thank you for your review! I'm so glad that you like this story even though you don't have a character in it! That means so much to me honestly! And I agree about the military superheroes, I think that they are so interesting but they never get the same recognition as others.**

 **Thank you so much for all your kind reviews! Don't forget to review again!**

 **~ Grace**


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